January 2022

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. Read more…

Brenda Hampton says the heart attack she endured last month might be a blessing in disguise — a second chance at challenging a complex legal system that barred her from seeking compensation for years of renal failure.

‘I’m thinking God is opening the door for me. I’ve got a feeling of that,’ Hampton, the founder of Concerned Citizens of WMEL (West Morgan and East Lawrence) Water Authority, told The Hill.

Through her organization, also known as Concerned Citizens of North Alabama Grassroots, Hampton has been raising awareness about the severe contamination from ‘forever chemicals’ — per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — that have for decades plagued portions of Alabama’s Lawrence County, where Hampton lives.  Read more…

PFAS Exposure™, the first at-home test to determine levels of PFAS in a person’s blood and measure 47 of these PFAS ‘forever chemical’ compounds, is now available from empowerDX, a leading online health and wellness resource for a wide variety of at-home health testing.

A press conference announcing complete details of empowerDX’s new PFAS Exposure test will be held today, January 21 at 10:30 a.m. ET. Anyone may access at the Zoom link below or view the conference later posted in the company’s newsroom.

The new, self-collected sampling kit by empowerDX measures the presence and levels of more than 40 PFAS compounds in capillary whole blood, significantly more than any other test currently available. The PFAS Exposure blood test expands upon the CDC National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) biobank database where 16 PFAS compounds in serum are reported. Read more…

Are you looking for non-toxic activewear like workout leggings & yoga pants? Whether you wear your activewear for leisure or for activity at the gym, we aren’t judging. But what we ARE judging is the 32 workout legging and yoga pant brands that we sent to an EPA-certified laboratory to test for indications of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a toxic class of chemicals linked to a number of serious health conditions.

Mamavation ranked 32 pairs of activewear including workout leggings and yoga pants based on indications of PFAS “forever chemicals” and we are naming names in this report including what we discovered from brands like more casual LulaRoe, Athleta, & Lululemon. Read more…

There have been some concerns recently around perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) being found in period underwear. PFAS are a group of manmade chemicals that are found in waterproof and nonstick products. There is evidence that exposure to PFAS can lead to negative effects on the immune system and an increased risk of certain cancers. Many brands claim that there are “no measured PFAS” in their products, but this type of testing is relatively recent and companies may not know what to look for as there are thousands of different PFAS chemicals. Therefore, it is unknown whether period underwear has more risk of exposure than any other consumer product that makes skin contact.

‘This issue speaks to broader challenges with how toxic chemicals are produced and used in our world today,’ says Alissa Cordner, Ph.D., co-director of the PFAS Project Lab based at Northeastern University. ‘It is quite possible that a product manufacturer would be unaware of PFAS in some of their component materials because the global supply chain lacks transparency when it comes to chemicals. But this is still a problem, and product manufacturers have a responsibility to ensure that their products are safe for consumers and for the environment.’ Read more…

The anti-fogging sprays and cloths many people use to prevent condensation on their eyeglasses when wearing a mask or face shield may contain high levels of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), a new Duke University-led study finds.

The researchers tested four top-rated anti-fogging sprays and five top-rated anti-fogging cloths sold on Amazon. They found all nine products contained fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs) and fluorotelomer ethoxylates (FTEOs), two types of PFAS that largely have flown under the scientific radar until now. Read now…