Here's what could happen if the Canadian government classifies 'forever chemicals' together

The Canadian government is looking into regulating chemicals that can harm humans and do not break down in the environment.

Known as "forever chemicals" or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) this grouping of about 4,700 compounds can be found in many everyday items, including takeout containers, makeup, firefighter foam and non-stick cookware.

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The chemicals resist water and grease, making them good for consumer products but extremely difficult to break down, Amira Aker, an environmental health scientist, told CTV's Your Morning Wednesday.

"Once (PFAS) enter our bodies, they end up binding to some proteins in our blood and get carried to organs that have a lot of blood perfusion, things like the liver and kidneys and our lungs," Aker said.

Some studies have shown the chemicals could also lower birth weight and impact people with higher cholesterol, she said.

"We also find that PFAS seems to suppress the immune system," Aker said. "So kids that have high concentrations of PFAS, for example, tend to react less to vaccines making immunizations less effective."

The chemicals enter our bodies through drinking water and items we interact with.

"Anything you can think of that you've purchased that said it was waterproof or stain resistant or nonstick likely has PFAS in it," Aker said. "Once it enters our bodies, it can take years for us to expel those chemicals."

Miriam Diamond, a University of Toronto environmental professor, previously led a study on how the chemicals work and what happens after humans dispose of them.

"These chemicals don't get bound up by soils and in the bottom of lakes and oceans. They stay in the water. That means they circulate around, and it also means that these chemicals get into our drinking water," Diamond told CTVNews.ca in an interview earlier this year.

The federal government is looking into how to regulate the chemicals, considering an approach of putting PFAS into new classes, different from the individual classification now.

"Up until now both in Canada and the international community, we've only really been able to show toxicity for a handful of these chemicals," Aker said.

With a change in classifying multiple chemicals in groups it could allow for a broader ban and quicker action, she said.

"The majority of these PFAS chemicals have a similar backbone and that backbone is a bond between carbon and fluorine," Aker said. "We know for a fact that the majority of these chemicals will not degrade in the environment and that they will probably have very similar effects once they enter a human body and that should be sufficient evidence to ban or regulate these chemicals as a whole."

 

To watch the full interview click the video at the top of this link.