Re:‘Forever Chemicals’ Deserve Far More EPA Scrutiny
by majormajor on Saturday March 18, 2023 @11:53PM
(#35215876)
There's a lot of confusion in this post, but just to pick on one particularly errant bit, "forever chemicals" are not new chemicals, they've been around as long as plastics have (1940s - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_subst... )
A key difference between them and plastics is how deeply they get into the body and bloodstream. (There is some similar crossover with chemicals used in plastic like BPA, but more generally the concerns around plastic are around environmental damage vs individual organism and organ damage.)
(That age is also a reason to believe they aren't immediately apocalyptic since we've been living with them for a while, but research into how much can be well tolerated is very important since they stick around so well.)
A key difference between them and plastics is how deeply they get into the body and bloodstream. (There is some similar crossover with chemicals used in plastic like BPA, but more generally the concerns around plastic are around environmental damage vs individual organism and organ damage.)
(That age is also a reason to believe they aren't immediately apocalyptic since we've been living with them for a while, but research into how much can be well tolerated is very important since they stick around so well.)