Read the full article by Kevin Loria (The Washington Post)
“Recent Consumer Reports tests of more than 100 food packaging products from U.S. restaurants and supermarkets found dangerous PFAS chemicals in many of the products, including paper bags for french fries, wrappers for hamburgers, molded fiber salad bowls and single-use paper plates.
Previous CR tests found PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — in drinking water and bottled water.
That’s concerning, as growing research documents that PFAS, which are added to many materials to make them resistant to grease, water and stains, have led to environmental contamination around the globe and raised questions about their health risks when they accumulate in our bodies.
How we’re exposed to them
One of the main concerns about PFAS is how long they last. They are often called ‘forever chemicals’ because they break down extremely slowly, if ever.
That persistence, combined with the many products that now contain PFAS, means that there are many ways the chemicals can enter the environment and eventually reach humans, too.
Consider, for example, the production of food packaging with PFAS coating. In Maine, wastewater sludge from mills where such products are produced has reportedly been used to fertilize fields where cattle graze. In 2020, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry tested milk from dairy farms and found levels of one particular PFAS in a sample from a farm that were more than 150 times higher than state regulations permit.”…