A report made public before its intended release revealed that “forever chemicals” are found in some of the most popular products that make it in our plates.
These carcinogenic chemicals were dubbed this way due to the prolonged time it takes for the environment or human body to break them down.
The investigation was carried out by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and results were presented during the 29th yearly European Gathering of the Society of Environmental and Chemistry in Helsinki.
However, the FDA failed to make this information publicly on time, so the health advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund took the report to the internet due to the distressing nature of this data.
Toxic substances were found in foods such as meat, seafood and dairy, but also in sweet potatoes, pineapples, leafy greens, and chocolate cake with icing.
PFAS is a class of synthetic chemicals (PFOAS, PFOA, GenX) which contain fluorine and carbon bonds that take “forever” to be destroyed by the human body.
These dangerous chemicals have made their way into our water and food supply.
Once you ingest them, they can affect the good condition of the liver, cause thyroid disease, decrease fertility, cause high cholesterol and obesity, hormone suppression and, last but not least, CANCER.
To grasp at how serious the food crisis has become, this 2007 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines that PFAS chemicals were found in the blood of 98% of the U.S. population.
These compounds stick to the blood, kidney and liver. The more your body accumulates them, the more ravaging the outcome will be.
After the news were made public, the FDA updated their website with the latest information that should be available starting this week.
“…due to the potential health concerns related to these chemicals, the FDA is working to better understand the potential dietary exposure of PFAS,” the website will say, according to CNN.
The initial tests were done at a dairy farm near a US Air Force Base where foams containing PFAS have been used.
Tested water samples had 35 times higher toxicity levels than what the US Environmental Protection Agency deems safe.
Samples taken from cows were “determined to be a human health concern and all milk from the farm was discarded,” says the FDA report.
Furthermore, even after the cows stop drinking the contaminated water, the toxins will remain in their body for a great span of time.
To make a better impression, “it would take approximately 1.5 years to eliminate PFOS from the cow after a 30-day exposure period,” the study notes.
From the total of 91 water samples examined, fourteen of them were contaminated.
The most alarming news concern seafood where close to half of the samples tested came back positive.
PFAS has been found predominantly in water supplies near military bases and airports where they use firefighting foam (which contains PFAS), and near facilities that manufacture products with PFAS, The Hill reports.
This alarming news are not meant to cause you distress, but rather prepare you for this reality that we’re facing.
Remember that PFAS chemicals are lurking on the very packaged used on our food, like meat wrappers and fast food containers.
By renouncing at this type of packaging you’ll dissipate the danger. It would also be wise (if you’re not doing it already) to grow your own food or to improve your food sources.
There are plenty of American farmers that claim to never use GMO on their crops due to the serious health risk they pose, so getting in touch with a few of them would be a great thing for your health.
There is, however, one thing that you should be worried about – the lack of transparency and delayed response of the FDA!
“Clearly people are not going to stop eating chocolate cake with icing, but they have the right to know that high levels of PFAS are being found in everyday foods, and that’s why it’s so troubling that Americans had to go all the way to Helsinki to know what scientists have known for many years,” said Scott Faber, vice president for government affairs at the Environmental Group, which is the organization that released the study before the FDA.
It’s up to us to keep our health steady, since the government only seeks to sweet the dirt that (they cause in the first place) under the rug.
