Guess there really wasn't enough to worry about

Until I read an article in the Boston Globe last week, I'd never even heard of PFAS, a.k.a. 'forever chemicals.' 'Forever chemicals,' eh. I don't know about you, but most of the time when I hear the word 'forever,' it's with a positive connotation: BFF, forever home, FOREVER in the Hallelujah Chorus. Given that there's not much positive about PFAS, I think I'll just stick with PFAS.

What might PFAS be?

The term PFAS refers to a class of man-made per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds that have been around since the 1940s. Since they resist heat, oil, stains, grease, and water, manufacturers use them in everything from cosmetics and cookware to yoga pants and firefighting foam. They’re also found in construction materials and at airports and military installations. (Source: Boston Globe)

I don't think my cookware would have PFAS in it - it's Calphalon stainless - and there probably aren't PFAS in steel. But I do have one Le Creuset piece - an exceedingly loved and continually used Dutch oven - that has a plasticky knob on the lid, and is enameled. So, maybe...

Which means if I'm standing at my stove, wearing yoga pants, and whatever I'm stirring in my Dutch oven bursts into flames, and I have to douse it with my fire extinguisher, I may well be in PFAS city. Good think I'm unlikely to have any cosmetics on.

Anyway PFAS are pretty much ubiquitous and "highly toxic," even in small quantities. They've been linked to all kinds of fun stuff like high cholesterol and - no surprise here - to some forms of cancer. And they've totally earned their "forever" designation.

PFAS earned the alarming nickname “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down easily in the environment. Because of their chemical makeup, they can stay intact for thousands of years.

“When it is dumped, it stays there,” said Kyla Bennett, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in New England.

PFAS can get to you and at you  in a number of ways - even airborne - but the most common way is through drinking water.

We are most fortunate in Boston, and in Massachusetts in general, to have very good drinking water.

These bottles contain the supply of straight (unfiltered) from the tap water I keep chilling in my fridge. And, if those bottles look like wine bottles, well, yes, they are. Handy storage and look fine plunked on the dinner table. 

I checked and, there's not much by way of PFAS in Boston's water supply. In any case, last fall we passed the Sierra Club's test and what we have flowing through our pipes doesn't exceed the standard allowed for PFAS by the state.  

Others in Massachusetts (indeed, throughout the US) haven't been so lucky. 

And out in rural Central Massachusetts - in Westminster, an outpost in Worcester County - they've traced one likely source for PFAS in their well water: seepage from a composting facility, of all things. 

Composting sounds so crunchy-granola, friend of the environment, doesn't it. Putting your eggshells and apple peels in a little bag and spreading it on your garden and all that. 

But MassNatural (the composting outfit) composts a lot of paper goods, and coated papers and inks contain plenty of PFAS. (If you're looking for where you might come across coated papers: fast food wrappers made with "grease-repelling paper.") 

PFAS aren't currently regulated by the EPA, and I don't suppose we can expect them to start getting serious about the problem now that SCOTUS has set us on the road to environmental ruin by not allowing the EPA to protect anything to do with the environment. 

PFAS. Ugh!

Did we really need something else to worry about.