[CPEO-MEF] PFAS: Indoor Dust

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

INDOOR DUST CONTAINS PFAS AND OTHER TOXIC CHEMICALS
A new study of indoor dust found PFAS and other toxics that can lead to infertility, diabetes, obesity, abnormal fetal growth, and cancers.

By Sharon Lerner
The Intercept
April 14, 2021

INDOOR DUST CONTAINS dangerous, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, according to a study published today in Environmental Health Perspectives. The study of 46 dust samples from 21 buildings at a U.S. university found that all 46 samples contained hormonally active compounds that can lead to health effects, including infertility, diabetes, obesity, abnormal fetal growth, and cancers.

The study helps explain how industrial chemicals known as PFAS and flame retardants, which are found in the blood or urine of over 90 percent of Americans and are already known to cause widespread health and reproductive effects, enter the body. PFAS, which first came to light as ingredients in Teflon, are also used to coat carpets, furniture, and clothing. Despite a lack of evidence that they prevent fires, flame retardants are added to furniture, carpet, electronics, and building insulation. While we don’t eat these products, this study makes it clear that we breathe in tiny bits of them that have entered the air as dust.

“We don’t realize we’re taking this dust into our bodies all day every day,” said Anna Young, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and lead author of the study. According to Young, people ingest an average of 20 milligrams of dust each day.

…

For the entire article, see
https://theintercept.com/2021/04/14/pfas-toxic-chemicals-indoor-dust/

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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