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Perfluorochemicals (PFCs)

These man-made compounds show up in a host of items we associate with making our lives a little easier: stain repellents, water-resistant fabric additives, and non-stick cookware coatings, among other things. Unfortunately, the very qualities that make them useful also make them highly persistent in the environment. They do not break down, but rather linger indefinitely. And they have been linked to numerous health problems, including cancer. In recent years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that PFCs are in the blood of nearly every person in the United States. Whether they got there through contact with household items, or through environmental pollution from industrial uses of the chemicals, is unclear. But the potential dangers have led the EPA to take one type of PFC off the market (called PFOS, which was used in stain and water repellants); some prominent manufacturers, notably 3M, have voluntarily stopped producing others.

 

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