How to Limit Your PFAS Exposure in the Great Outdoors

There’s nothing like touching grass, or for that matter, digging your hands into the earth while gardening. But before you do, know what type of dirt you’re dealing with. One type of fertilizer sold commercially that may contain PFAS is sewage sludge, a by-product of wastewater treatment plants. The plants produce sludge, also referred to as “biosolids,” by separating the solids and liquids that get flushed down our toilets. The plants typically release their sanitized water back into waterways while the solids (after further treatment to break down the organic matter and destroy pathogens) may end up on land as fertilizer. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a draft risk assessment in 2025 that warned of PFAS contamination in sewage sludge. The EPA noted that in some cases, the amount of PFAS can exceed the agency’s safety threshold “by several orders of magnitude.” The sludge could contaminate farm products, crops, livestock, and nearby waters as well as farmworkers themselves. Meanwhile, the general public is able to buy it from garden centers and hardware stores for home gardens and lawn care. 

The risks vary greatly, depending on the concentration of PFAS in the particular batch of sludge-derived fertilizer you use and the frequency with which you’re handling it. The type of plants you’re growing with this fertilizer also matters—if food crops, be mindful that some plants take up more PFAS into their tissues than others, including leafy greens and root vegetables.

Tips to stay safe

• Use safer alternative fertilizers, such as those verified by OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) to not contain sludge, or produce your own compost from kitchen and lawn scraps. 
• If using fertilizer containing sludge, wear gloves and avoid applying it to food crops or where children may come into contact with it, including home gardens, parks, playgrounds, community gardens, and schools. Growing plants in raised beds can minimize children’s exposure. As always, thoroughly wash hands and produce before eating. 
• If you do choose to grow crops with sludge-derived fertilizer, research has shown that perennial crops tend to accumulate less PFAS than annuals. 

Mercury contamination has long been something to watch out for when consuming fish, and now pescatarians must also be wary of PFAS. Once a waterway becomes contaminated—typically from firefighting foam, boats, industrial facilities, agricultural and urban runoff, or poor wastewater management—the PFAS bioaccumulate though the food web in a similar way to mercury, building up in fish tissue over time. But with PFAS, higher levels tend to be found within freshwater fish compared to ocean fish. 

A study published in 2023 found the median amount of PFAS in locally caught freshwater fish was 278 times higher than store-bought fish, which tend to come from either the sea or fish farms. Eating just a single serving of freshwater fish with that amount of PFAS each year, the researchers suggest, could lead to a significant increase in PFOS—a particularly pervasive type of PFAS—in your blood. As the study points out, this is a particular concern for marginalized communities who rely on local waterways for sustenance, and regulators should address the contamination as a matter of social justice. 

Unlike for mercury, there are no such federal guidelines regarding PFAS in caught fish, but several states do warn against eating fish caught in certain bodies of water contaminated with forever chemicals.

Tips to stay safe

• Avoid eating fish caught in waterways with known PFAS contamination. If available, follow your state’s fish consumption advisories. 
• If you are worried about PFAS contamination in a private lake, pond, or stream, consider testing the water or requesting your local health department to do so. You can order mail-in PFAS testing kits online, but be sure they offer lab-certified results. You can also reach out to a state-certified water testing laboratory for professional advice. 

PFAS enter swimming pools in all sorts of ways, from swimsuits, hair products, cosmetics, and water-resistant sunscreens to the dust blowing in the wind. But the biggest source is likely the water itself. An NRDC analysis of EPA community water data found PFAS levels to be above the agency’s safety thresholds in all but three states (Arkansas, Hawaii, and North Dakota). 

Swimming in lakes, reservoirs, and rivers carries its own exposure risks as PFAS from industrial facilities or agriculture runoff can also collect there. Like in pools, swimmers might also add to that contamination through personal care products that wash into the water.

Tips to stay safe

• Try to avoid accidentally swallowing water and monitor young children closely. 
• If you have cuts or abrasions, limit your time in the water and clean the wounds afterward. 
• Avoid contact with any foam you may see along the shoreline. While such foams can occur naturally, they can sometimes contain high levels of PFAS.
• When possible, switch to PFAS-free personal care products. PFAS Central has a running list of such items. 

As artificial turf has grown in popularity over recent decades, so have concerns about its safety. A number of academic studies have detected PFAS in several components of artificial turf, including the plastic blades, the infill that keeps the blades upright, and the synthetic carpet that helps prevent weeds. In 2021, a local citizen’s group in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, independently tested the city’s new artificial field and found several types of PFAS throughout the turf, despite it being marketed as PFAS-free. 

In 2024, the advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility conducted a preliminary study and found an increased amount of PFOS on the hands of soccer players after playing on artificial turf. The sample size in this case was very small, but it points to a need for more robust research in order to better understand the risks these materials may pose to the communities that install them. While there is limited data on just how much PFAS enters the body during activities on turf, the PFAS used to make turf can eventually leach into the environment, contributing to our exposure from air, water, soil, and food.

Some cities—like Boston, Salt Lake City, and San Marino, California—are proactively restricting new artificial turf. And a Colorado law went into effect this year that bans the use of nonfunctional artificial turf (think strips of fake grass on highway medians, parking lots, sidewalks, etc.). 

In a letter to city officials in San Francisco that opposes the replacement of 20 acres of grass fields in Crocker Amazon Park with artificial turf, NRDC’s director of PFAS advocacy, Dr. Anna Reade, recommends requiring comprehensive chemical testing before approving any new turf project. On top of PFAS, the analysis should check for microplastics and other toxic chemicals associated with artificial turf, such as heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which may be present in the surface material and infill, runoff water, and ambient air after use. Reade also advises the commissioning of a full life cycle analysis of the health and ecological impacts of artificial turf fields already in place in the city before adding new ones. 

Tips to stay safe        

• Wash hands carefully after touching artificial turf and shower after playing on it.
• Be aware of any cuts or abrasions and take care to disinfect and clean them after interacting with artificial turf. 
• Keep an eye on young children playing on artificial turf to avoid any accidental ingestion.
• Do not walk on turf barefoot and remove shoes immediately when getting home to avoid tracking any debris into your home.
• Heat can react with PFAS, potentially increasing your exposure—and artificial turf fields are known to get very hot—so avoiding these fields during high temperatures is a good idea.
• If the artificial field is indoors, check to see if the space is well ventilated with high-volume fans or open windows or doors.