Indoor dust contains PFAS and other toxic chemicals

By Sharon Lerner | The Intercept | April 14, 2021

Read the full article by Sharon Lerner (The Intercept)

“Indoor dust contains dangerous, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, according to a study published today in Environmental Health Perspectives. The study of 46 dust samples from 21 buildings at a U.S. university found that all 46 samples contained hormonally active compounds that can lead to health effects, including infertility, diabetes, obesity, abnormal fetal growth, and cancers.

The study helps explain how industrial chemicals known as PFAS and flame retardants, which are found in the blood or urine of over 90 percent of Americans and are already known to cause widespread health and reproductive effects, enter the body. PFAS, which first came to light as ingredients in Teflon, are also used to coat carpets, furniture, and clothing. Despite a lack of evidence that they prevent fires, flame retardants are added to furniture, carpet, electronics, and building insulation. While we don’t eat these products, this study makes it clear that we breathe in tiny bits of them that have entered the air as dust.

‘We don’t realize we’re taking this dust into our bodies all day every day,’ said Anna Young, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and lead author of the study. According to Young, people ingest an average of 20 milligrams of dust each day…”

This content provided by the PFAS Project.