Fluorinated Plastics Carry the Risk of Forever Chemicals: A Looming Threat to Public Health

They were designed to be indestructible — and they are. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also called “forever chemicals,” are a family of more than 12,000 synthetic compounds whose defining characteristic is a carbon-fluorine bond so strong that virtually no natural process can break it. Used since the 1940s to manufacture fluorinated plastics and coatings with remarkable heat resistance, water repellency, and chemical stability, PFAS compounds have penetrated every corner of the modern world. They are in non-stick cookware, food packaging, firefighting foam, waterproof clothing, dental floss, stain-resistant carpets, and semiconductor manufacturing. They are also, now, in the blood of 97% of Americans — and in the drinking water of tens of millions of people across the United States and around the world. The scientific and regulatory reckoning with PFAS is one of the most consequential environmental health stories of the 21st century.

What Are Fluorinated Plastics and PFAS?

Fluorinated plastics are polymers in which some or all hydrogen atoms have been replaced by fluorine atoms. The most well-known is polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) — better known by its DuPont trade name, Teflon — a fluorinated plastic used as a non-stick coating for cookware and as a component in thousands of industrial applications. Other fluorinated plastics include polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), used in filtration membranes and solar panel backing films, and fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), used in cables and tubing.

PFAS are the broader class of fluorinated compounds that includes the processing chemicals and chemical precursors used in making fluorinated plastics, as well as functional additives used in their own right. The two most studied PFAS — perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) — were the primary focus of early regulatory attention and have been phased out of US production, but replaced by hundreds of structurally similar “short-chain” PFAS alternatives whose safety profiles are in many cases unknown or actively contested.

What all PFAS share is the carbon-fluorine bond. The C-F bond has the highest bond dissociation energy of any organic chemical bond, making it extraordinarily resistant to heat, oxidation, acid, base, and biological metabolism. This is precisely what makes PFAS so useful for industrial applications — and so dangerous as environmental contaminants. A PFAS compound released into the environment does not degrade to harmless breakdown products. It persists, potentially for thousands of years, accumulating in soils, water, plants, animals, and human tissue.

The Contamination Landscape: Where PFAS Are Found

PFAS contamination is both ubiquitous and geographically concentrated. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) national PFAS testing program — conducted as part of the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR3) and expanded UCMR5 — has documented PFAS contamination in drinking water systems serving tens of millions of Americans. Key findings:

• Military bases and fire training areas: Aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) — a firefighting foam used at military installations and civilian airports — contains high concentrations of PFAS and has contaminated groundwater at hundreds of military sites across the US. The Department of Defense has identified over 700 military installations with known or suspected PFAS contamination of drinking water, affecting surrounding communities in states including Michigan, New York, Colorado, California, and North Carolina.
• Industrial facilities: PFAS manufacturers and users — including chemical plants, textile mills, metal plating facilities, and semiconductor fabricators — have contaminated groundwater and surface water near their operations. The Chemours (formerly DuPont) plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina discharged GenX — a PFAS replacement for PFOA — into the Cape Fear River for decades, contaminating drinking water for communities downstream including Wilmington, NC’s water supply.
• Agricultural land: PFAS-contaminated sewage sludge (biosolids), widely used as a fertilizer on agricultural fields, has contaminated soils and groundwater on farms across the US. A 2022 report found that over 20 million acres of US farmland may have been treated with PFAS-contaminated biosolids, potentially contaminating crops and livestock with forever chemicals.
• Food packaging: PFAS-coated food packaging — including fast food wrappers, microwave popcorn bags, pizza boxes, and pressed paper containers — is a significant source of dietary PFAS exposure. The FDA has worked with manufacturers to phase out PFAS from food-contact paper since 2020, but enforcement and international import regulations remain inconsistent.

Health Effects: What the Science Shows

The health evidence on PFAS has grown dramatically over the past decade, driven by studies of occupationally exposed workers, residents of highly contaminated communities, and large-scale epidemiological studies. The key health associations identified by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) in its comprehensive 2022 PFAS report include:

Kidney cancer: Exposure to PFOA has been consistently associated with increased risk of kidney cancer in both occupational studies of DuPont workers and epidemiological studies of communities near PFAS manufacturing facilities. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified PFOA as a Group 1 human carcinogen (definite cause of cancer in humans) in 2023 — one of the most significant IARC classifications in recent years.

Testicular cancer: PFOA and PFOS have been associated with increased risk of testicular cancer in multiple studies. The association is particularly notable because testicular cancer rates have been rising in the US and Europe for decades — a trend some researchers have linked to widespread PFAS exposure.

Thyroid disease and disruption: PFAS compounds interfere with thyroid hormone synthesis and function, an effect documented in both animal studies and human epidemiology. Given the thyroid’s role in regulating metabolism, growth, and fetal development, this disruption has broad health implications, particularly for pregnant women and developing fetuses.

Immune suppression: Perhaps the most broadly concerning finding is PFAS-associated immune suppression, particularly in children. Studies published in JAMA Pediatrics found that children with higher PFAS blood levels had significantly reduced immune responses to childhood vaccines — suggesting that PFAS exposure may reduce vaccine effectiveness in exposed populations. The NASEM report concluded that there is sufficient evidence to associate PFAS exposure with decreased antibody response to vaccines.

Developmental effects: PFAS cross the placental barrier and are found in breast milk, exposing developing fetuses and infants. Studies have associated prenatal PFAS exposure with reduced birth weight, altered neurodevelopment, and increased risk of attention deficit disorders in children.

Cardiovascular and metabolic effects: PFAS have been associated with elevated cholesterol levels, increased risk of hypertension in pregnant women (preeclampsia), and altered insulin sensitivity — effects that could contribute to cardiovascular disease risk at the population level.

EPA Regulation: The Maximum Contaminant Levels Rule

After decades of largely voluntary industry action on PFAS, the EPA took a landmark regulatory step in April 2024, finalizing the first-ever National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for PFAS. The rule established legally enforceable Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for six PFAS compounds in public water supplies:

• PFOA: 4 parts per trillion (ppt)
• PFOS: 4 ppt
• PFNA: 10 ppt
• PFHxS: 10 ppt
• HFPO-DA (GenX): 10 ppt
• A mixture limit for combinations of PFNA, PFHxS, HFPO-DA, and PFBS

Water systems have five years — until 2029 — to comply with these MCLs. The EPA estimates that the rule will affect approximately 6,700 public water systems currently exceeding the new limits, requiring installation of advanced treatment systems including granular activated carbon (GAC) filters and high-pressure membrane systems (nanofiltration and reverse osmosis). Compliance costs are estimated at $1.5 billion annually, with health benefits estimated at $9.4 billion annually — a 6:1 benefit-to-cost ratio that reflects the substantial medical and productivity costs associated with PFAS-related disease.

The EPA MCL rule was accompanied by PFAS designations under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA — the Superfund law), formally classifying PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances. This designation enables the EPA to require contaminated site cleanups and pursue cost recovery from polluters — a development with potentially vast implications for PFAS manufacturers, industrial users, and municipalities that spread PFAS through biosolid application on agricultural land.

The Litigation Landscape: $12 Billion in Settlements

Parallel to regulatory action, PFAS litigation has produced the largest environmental settlements in US history. In June 2023, 3M — a major PFAS manufacturer — agreed to pay at least $10.3 billion to settle claims from public water utilities over PFAS contamination of drinking water. In July 2023, DuPont and its spinoff companies Chemours and Corteva agreed to pay $1.185 billion to settle similar claims. These settlements, totaling over $12 billion, are among the largest environmental liability resolutions ever achieved in the US legal system.

State attorneys general have brought additional PFAS enforcement actions across the US, with particularly aggressive programs in California, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Hampshire. Personal injury litigation by individuals with PFAS-related cancers and other diseases is ongoing, with thousands of cases consolidated in federal multi-district litigation.

The Fluorinated Plastic Phase-Out: Industry and Policy Responses

Regulatory and litigation pressure has driven significant industry action on PFAS:

• 3M announced in December 2022 that it would stop manufacturing PFAS entirely by end of 2025 — a dramatic exit from a chemical line that generated approximately $1.3 billion in annual revenue
• Major cookware manufacturers including Tefal, Calphalon, and many others have developed PFAS-free ceramic and other alternative non-stick coatings; all major US cookware brands now offer PFAS-free lines
• The FDA’s 2020 voluntary agreements with paper manufacturers to phase out short-chain PFAS from food packaging has been extended with additional commitments through 2025-2026
• The EU’s proposed universal restriction on PFAS — which would ban the manufacture, use, and import of essentially all PFAS compounds with narrow exceptions — is the most sweeping regulatory action proposed anywhere globally and would affect markets worldwide through trade linkages

What Consumers Can Do

Given the ubiquity of PFAS, complete avoidance is not practical. But evidence-based steps can significantly reduce PFAS exposure:

• Filter drinking water: Point-of-use reverse osmosis filters or NSF-certified pitcher filters (NSF/ANSI Standard 58 for reverse osmosis, NSF/ANSI Standard 53 for activated carbon) are effective at removing PFAS from drinking water. The NSF maintains a database of certified PFAS-removal filters at nsf.org.
• Replace PFAS-coated cookware: Stainless steel, cast iron, and PFAS-free ceramic-coated alternatives are widely available. Damaged or heavily scratched PTFE-coated cookware should be replaced, as it may release PFAS particles during cooking.
• Avoid PFAS-coated food packaging: Choosing products with minimal packaging, avoiding microwave popcorn bags and fast food wrappers where possible, and selecting products specifically marketed as PFAS-free reduces dietary exposure.
• Check local water quality: The EPA’s ECHO database and EWG’s Tap Water Database both allow consumers to check PFAS levels in their local water supply and identify whether their utility exceeds the new EPA MCLs.

The story of PFAS is ultimately a story about the true cost of chemical persistence — the price paid when materials are engineered to last forever in a world that cannot absorb them. The regulatory, scientific, and legal reckoning now underway represents both an overdue accountability for decades of chemical industry conduct and a template for how society responds when the externalized costs of industrial chemicals finally become too large to ignore.

For more on environmental contamination and public health, read our articles on the global plastics treaty, microplastics from fast fashion, and pesticide-coated seeds and US wildlife.