‘They’re everywhere’

They’re called “forever chemicals.” They’re human-made, and they just don’t break down—in water, sunlight, or in contact with other chemicals. Once they’re out in the world with us, they’ll be here for thousands of years. They cause serious damage to human hormone systems, affecting people’s moods, sleep, blood pressure, metabolism—and even reproduction. And there are about 7 million kinds of them.

Researchers in the EU found that one—PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—had nearly tripled in fruits and vegetables between 2011 and 2021. A different study tested wines from 10 European countries—and every single one had a toxic forever chemical, trifluoroacetic acid. In some bottles, TFA levels were 100 times higher than in the average glass of water. TFA levels were undetectable in vintages grown in the 1980s.  

Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic now say they’re going to tighten restrictions on the use of these chemicals. The EU is preparing a major clean-up of forever chemicals in European waters. The European Commission says it will propose a ban on PFAS in consumer products, though not in certain industrial processes. In the U.S., Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he will take on toxic chemicals that threaten people’s well-being.

But a lot of people have been trying to get rid of chemicals in our food since Rachel Carson’s book about pesticides, Silent Spring, came out way back in 1962.  So why are they still so common?

Rashmi Joglekar leads the Science, Policy, and Engagement team in the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco. Joglekar says we’ve only really started to understand recently that these chemicals are everywhere—and in everyone. They’re not just in fruit sprayed with pesticides; after decades of use, they’re now in the Earth’s water and soil—even in the clouds. They’re in us, too: In testing for it, scientists have yet to find a single person without PFAS in their body. 

And just as we’re coming to understand how pervasive these substances are, researchers are also beginning to see just how harmful they are. One complexity of the whole situation, Joglekar says, is that we’re all exposed to these chemicals in combination and cumulatively over our lifetimes. We’re probably exposed to dozens every day. But food companies refuse even to say what they’re putting into what we eat—and regulators aren’t making them disclose it. Meanwhile, scientists are struggling to demonstrate the full scale of the damage these chemicals cause, because it’s just so difficult to pull off research that can show the causal links between these synthetic toxins and negative health effects across such vast numbers of people …

Gustav Jönsson: What are the most widespread toxic chemicals in food today?