“Forever Chemicals” Called PFAS Show Up in Your Food, Clothes, and Home

PFAS have now been linked to a wide range of health risks in both human and animal studies—including cancer (kidney and testicular), hormone disruption, liver and thyroid problems, immune system suppression, reproductive harm, and abnormal fetal development.

Many of these problems, including kidney cancer and thyroid disease, turned up in the C8 studies, which monitored the health of about 69,000 people in West Virginia who were exposed to certain PFAS in their drinking water. Key adverse effects of some PFAS were known by chemical industry scientists decades ago but were not disclosed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the public. For example, the EPA issued a multimillion-dollar fine to manufacturer DuPont because of the company’s “multiple failures to report information to EPA about substantial risk of injury to human health or the environment” from the PFAS perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA or C8). 

Now, scores of independent studies show that PFAS can be toxic to adults and especially children, whose developing bodies are more vulnerable. Some PFAS have even been known to build up in a child before birth. Alarmingly, PFAS were detected in the breast milk, umbilical cord blood, or bloodstreams of 99 percent of participants in a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Whether found in a raincoat or a pair of yoga pants, PFAS are used widely in our clothing, shoes, and accessories. These chemicals also pollute at every stage of production. At the PFAS chemical manufacturing facilities and garment factories, they often contaminate the air, water, and soil of the surrounding environment. 

Products coated in PFAS can also expose consumers directly during use. And PFAS-treated apparel that is washed and eventually dumped in landfills or incinerated leaks forever chemicals into the environment at the end of its life cycle too. Pollution generated far away also circles the globe, for example, through ocean waves or rain, with wide-reaching impacts. 

“The functionality that PFAS provide—a more stain-resistant coat or more breathable yet water-resistant gym shorts—is not necessary and certainly not worth the health risks,” says Sujatha Bergen, a coauthor of the NRDC report Going Out of Fashion: U.S. Apparel Manufacturers Must Eliminate PFAS “Forever Chemicals” from Their Supply Chains. “We lived just fine without these chemicals before, and brands could phase them out quickly if they chose to.” 

Unfortunately, there are no laws in the United States requiring manufacturers to warn consumers that a piece of clothing was made with PFAS. Some states, however, have made strides in this area—including California (the first in the nation to phase the chemicals out of apparel sold there); New York, which has likewise not shied away from regulating PFAS; and five others. But generally, you’re better off assuming that something does contain PFAS, particularly if you find keywords like waterproof, stain-repellent, or dirt-repellant on the tag. 

In response to pressure from both consumers and groups like NRDC, a number of apparel brands are taking action. American Eagle and L.L. Bean have both removed PFAS from across all their merchandise. Other major brands, like Ralph Lauren and Patagonia, have set time-bound commitments to do the same. 

Take action

• The best way to find out whether your item of clothing is PFAS-free is to check the brand’s website to see if it has announced that it has eliminated PFAS from its clothing or labeled clothing lines as PFAS-free. If no information is available, contact customer service to ask directly. Don’t be fooled by labels or promises that a product is “PFOA-free” or “PFOS-free,” since those two particular PFAS chemicals have already been eliminated from U.S. production and there are many other PFAS-containing substitutes in widespread use.
• Review the brands covered on NRDC’s PFAS apparel scorecard. You can also check out PFAS Central, a project of the Green Science Policy Institute, which offers a helpful list of products and brands that state they offer PFAS-free outdoor gear, apparel, and other products.

Water systems in the vast majority of U.S. states have been contaminated with PFAS, as seen in NRDC’s interactive map, released in 2025 and built on EPA data. The contamination comes from several sources—like the industrial (and still mostly legal) dumping of PFAS directly into rivers, lakes, and streams, or the seeping of PFAS into groundwater from waste in our landfills. It could also come from the burning of PFAS-containing products and waste in incinerators; the chemicals go up industry smokestacks and often return to the earth in our rain, getting deposited in our water and soil. And this pollution is often even more intense in already overburdened environmental justice communities, according to the NRDC report Dirty Water.

The EPA did recently set limits on six PFAS chemicals that are regularly found in drinking water, releasing a rule in April 2024 that, for the first time, would regulate these forever chemicals. (PFAS can be removed from drinking water with existing technologies.) But in May 2025, under the Trump administration, the agency reversed course. Administrator Lee Zeldin issued a statement that the EPA would seek to rescind and reconsider its regulations covering four PFAS chemicals in drinking water—GenX, PFHxS, PFNA, and PFBS—and extend the compliance deadline for the other two PFAS chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, by two years from 2029 to 2031. 

Then, in September, the agency announced that it would no longer defend the standards for GenX, PFHxS, PFNA, and PFBS in court and asked a federal court to axe both its determinations to regulate those four PFAS chemicals, as well as the accompanying standards. The EPA’s attempts to reverse and delay these standards are not yet finalized, but they represent an alarming U-turn in tackling this massive public health and environmental crisis. The agency had previously estimated that up to 105 million people across the country have PFAS levels in their tap water that may exceed the six standards.

Last year, NRDC and community groups represented by Earthjustice intervened in a court case to defend the drinking water standards for PFAS against challenges brought by chemical companies and water utility associations, which are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to overturn the standards. Notwithstanding Zeldin’s May announcement and the EPA’s recent change of position, NRDC and its partners are continuing to defend these rules in court. The EPA’s attempts to roll back and delay the PFAS standards seek to evade limits that Congress imposed on the agency. The Safe Drinking Water Act has a strong anti-backsliding provision that prohibits the EPA from weakening any drinking water standard once it is set. In essence, environmental attorneys say, the EPA is asking the court to do what the agency itself is not allowed to do.   

And beyond the specific set of PFAS, there are still thousands of other PFAS chemicals in use, the vast majority of which the agency does not test for. In fact, when NRDC partnered with impacted communities to conduct more comprehensive testing of drinking water samples from across the country, it found 26 unique PFAS, including a dozen that the EPA would have missed. The most widely detected chemical—which is among those not covered by the EPA’s current testing methods—was an ultrashort-chain PFAS called perfluoropropionic acid (PFPrA). A growing body of research is raising the alarm over ultrashort-chain PFAS like PFPrA and trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) because they are exceedingly difficult to remove from the environment. 

Take action

• There are steps you can take to protect yourself. If your drinking water comes from a public water system, contact your provider to find out if it has tested for PFAS and what actions it is taking if PFAS have been detected. If you are a private well owner, you can have your water tested for PFAS through a commercial drinking water testing service.
• Certain home water filters can help reduce contamination levels. Reverse osmosis and granular activated carbon are two types of filters that can effectively remove PFAS and other contaminants from drinking water. Options are available for whole home systems, point of use systems, or filter pitchers. The effectiveness of these may vary, and it is important to follow manufacturers’ recommendations for periodically replacing filters.
• Note that boiling your water does not get rid it of PFAS and can actually make its concentration higher.

PFAS have infiltrated our food system too. Our produce can be contaminated with forever chemicals via the soil, water, and air where it’s grown. In a 2018 study, the FDA assessed produce grown near a PFAS manufacturing plant. Of the 20 samples taken, 16 were found to contain PFAS. Studies have also detected PFAS in fish and shellfish sold for human consumption in the United States; a 2023 report showed that locally caught fish tended to have higher levels than commercially relevant fish. That particular publication noted that even a single serving of freshwater fish could elevate a person’s blood level of PFAS to a concerning level.

PFAS are also frequently used to make food packaging like pizza boxes grease-resistant or to make pans nonstick. In good news, states are increasingly stepping up to address these widespread uses. NRDC and our partners have helped pass laws in California and New York that phase out PFAS in paper-based food packaging. (California will soon broaden this phase out to all food containers and packaging.) Several other states have also taken similar action, but the use of PFAS may persist elsewhere.

The danger of PFAS in cookware—including nonstick pans—has been another area of focus for state leaders. Thanks to the advocacy of NRDC and other environmental health groups, the California legislature passed a bill in September 2025 to prohibit the sale and distribution of several categories of products that contain intentionally added PFAS. This legislation will apply to cookware beginning in 2030, and in 2028 for the other products, which include plastic food packaging. Minnesota has an even more comprehensive law protecting consumers from PFAS on the books; the state was the first in the nation to address PFAS in cookware, specifically. Five other states—including Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont—have also passed laws to phase out cookware that contains these forever chemicals.

Take action

• You can avoid the most obvious offenders by replacing nonstick cookware with stainless steel, cast-iron, glass, or ceramic alternatives.
• Also, don’t heat up food that’s wrapped in grease-resistant packaging or in plastic. And make popcorn on the stovetop instead of in PFAS-treated microwave bags.
• Keep in mind that compostable packaging that’s BPI-certified does not contain PFAS. 

Home goods aren’t spared from PFAS contamination either. Everything from your mattress pad and umbrella to your cosmetics and dental floss may be treated with PFAS, leaving families vulnerable. Children in particular, who are more likely to put PFAS-treated products into their mouths, are at higher risk. Similar to the designers of clothing and food packaging, home goods manufacturers are not required to inform consumers of the presence of PFAS in their products.

Again, some states have taken steps to regulate products in these categories, with 10 addressing PFAS in personal care items, specifically.

Take action

• The simplest way to reduce your exposure to these toxic chemicals is to opt against buying any furniture, bedding, and other textiles that are labeled as being water- or stain-repellent. Those treatments could contain PFAS. If you’re wondering about a potential purchase, check the manufacturer’s website and labels for whether its products are PFAS-free; many manufacturers of rugs and carpets have eliminated these chemicals.

In recent years, manufacturers have started to use shorter-chain PFAS because they move more quickly through the human body than longer-chain ones. That may sound like a positive step, but it hasn’t made a real difference, given that we continue to be exposed to these chemicals every day. 

“Companies will phase out a longer-chain PFAS,” explains NRDC senior scientist and director of PFAS advocacy Anna Reade, “then replace it with a regrettable substitution—a chemical that’s slightly different but likely to trigger the same health problems as what it’s replacing.” There’s evidence this is already happening. According to reports by the EPA, two newer-generation, shorter-chain PFAS, GenX and PFBS, were shown to be linked to similar health effects as the PFAS they replaced (PFOA and perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS, respectively). That’s why NRDC strongly supports regulating PFAS as a class and eliminating unnecessary uses wherever possible. NRDC will also continue to demand stricter regulations as well as more testing and transparency surrounding all PFAS included in consumer goods.

In good news, there have been a series of important victories in the battle to curb the use of PFAS. This included the 2002 phaseout of U.S. production of PFOS as well as the 2015 phaseout of domestically produced PFOA—albeit both are voluntary agreements. The latter chemical was used in the making of Teflon pans and identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a carcinogen in humans. (WHO already lists PFOS as possibly carcinogenic.)

And we’ve continued to see states adopt their own regulations. All across the map, many are taking legislative actions to protect consumers from PFAS being added to a wide range of products—from personal care items to apparel to carpeting. Some states, including New Hampshire and New Jersey, have also established tap water standards for certain PFAS. California and New York joined 10 other states in banning PFAS from paper-based food packaging and in firefighting foam and textiles. Recent state actions to phase out PFAS-containing cookware are also poised to take effect in the coming months. 

In the private sector, companies like Home Depot and Lowe’s have chosen to eliminate PFAS in their carpets and rugs, and a wave of clothing brands, including Patagonia and KEEN, are making public commitments to remove PFAS from their entire supply chains. These strides signal the potential for new market norms to take hold.

In 2021, the EPA made some advances in tackling PFAS contamination, outlining its intentions to increase research into health impacts and put more pressure on PFAS manufacturers to limit pollution. The 2024 EPA rule limiting the amount of six PFAS chemicals in drinking water was also a major step in the right direction. And the EPA’s decision to list PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances, which would hold polluters responsible for cleanup, is a positive step; one that the EPA is continuing to defend as of September 2025. But the country has backpedaled on many of its gains, given the recent delays and rescissions under the Trump administration. The federal government appears to be turning its back on any prior goals established for comprehensive monitoring, definitive regulations, or wide-scale PFAS cleanup efforts.

Regardless of the shifting priorities of different federal administrations around PFAS policy, the reality remains that we need to take action on the full class of these toxic forever chemicals to clean them up, phase them out, and then ban them for good.