Read the full article by Elizabeth Gribkoff (Environmental Health News)
“Looking for a new tablecloth or comforter? You might want to take a closer look if it’s stain-resistant because it likely contains toxic ‘forever chemicals,’ according to a new report.
The non-profit Toxic-Free Future found that almost three-quarters of 47 pieces of outdoor apparel, bedding, and kitchen linens that were marketed as stain- or water-resistant contain one or more per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. And many of these items contained specific PFAS banned in the European Union and no longer made in the U.S. due to their health effects.
‘When companies use PFAS to make products stain- or water-resistant, they are using chemicals that contaminate homes, drinking water, and breast milk with highly persistent chemicals that can cause cancer and harm the immune system,’ said Erika Schreder, science director for Toxic-Free Future, in a statement.
…The nonprofit commissioned testing of 60 items — 20 each in the outdoor clothes, kitchen linens, and bedding categories — for total fluorine, an indicator of PFAS. They then sent items with higher levels of fluorine, more than 100 parts per million (ppm), to be tested for 51 different kinds of PFAS.
Toxic-Free Future found that 34 out of the 47 items labelled as stain- or water-resistant contained PFAS. Michael Schade, director of Toxic-Free Future’s Mind the Store campaign, told EHN that he was surprised that so many of the products had older PFAS.”…