🚨 PFAS in U.S. Food Supply a Growing Concern, Study Finds

Despite widespread alarm about the health and environmental impacts of toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the chemicals are increasingly being added to pesticides applied in homes and crops across the U.S., according to a new study.

The findings, published today in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, add to growing concerns about PFAS contamination in the U.S. food system and waterways and highlight pesticides’ “underappreciated” role in the problem, said David Andrews, a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group and an author of the study.

The study revealed that PFAS accounts for 14% of all active ingredients in pesticides used in the U.S., including almost one-third of active ingredients approved in the last decade.

Even when PFAS are not intentionally added to these products, the fluorinated containers in which they are stored have been found to leach PFAS into their contents, the study concluded.

“This is truly frightening news, because pesticides are some of the most widely dispersed pollutants in the world,” Nathan Donley, the environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity and an author of the study, said in a statement.

“Lacing pesticides with forever chemicals is likely burdening the next generation with more chronic diseases and impossible cleanup responsibilities.”

The authors reviewed pesticide data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Geological Survey and the Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency, as well as publicly available databases, finding that PFAS-laced pesticides are regularly used nationwide on staple crops including corn, wheat, kale, spinach, apples and strawberries.

PFAS are also common ingredients in flea treatments for pets and sprays to kill insects, they found.

The study comes on the heels of a petition delivered to the EPA on July 22 by the Center for Food Safety and other nonprofits asking the agency to ban PFAS in pesticides.

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