Top Five Ways To Reduce PFAS in Your Home
TL; DR
PFAS are in many places in your home, and cause many negative health effects, but there are ways to reduce their presence. The top five best ways to remove PFAS from your home are: use a certified water filter for drinking and cooking, choose an air purifier that contains activated carbon, dust and vacuum every week, opt for PFAS free cookware, and use low-shedding toilet paper made without PFAS. Read more about why these methods are important and why they work, below.
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What are PFAS?
PFAS refers to a huge group of about 15,000 lab-made chemicals — what they all share in common is a fluorine-carbon bond, which is one of the strongest bonds known in chemistry. PFAS stands for Per- and PolyFluoroalkyl Substances, and they’re also commonly called forever chemicals, because they don’t break down in the environment for a very, very long time. They accumulate in the environment, and in the human body.
PFAS is the umbrella term for PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, and branded versions of these chemicals like GenX and Teflon. (Hot tip: this is why, if something is advertised as “PFOA free,” it may not be PFAS free, because it may still contain any number of the other 14,999 PFAS chemicals.)
PFAS were created by Dupont in the 1930s and were quickly successful because of their ability to make everyday products stain, oil, and water resistant. We started learning in the 1960s that PFAS were related to birth defects, and by the 1980s, we knew they could cause cancer in animal studies. Unfortunately, their convenience has meant that they are still being produced today, despite mounting information that they are harmful.
What are the health effects of PFAS?
PFAS are a unique group of toxicants because they affect every organ system of the human body. They bind to many different kinds of cellular receptors, causing different effects in the gastrointestinal, neurological, cardiovascular, and other systems. They negatively affect metabolism, immune function, and hormone signaling, and are carcinogenic and reprotoxic. We know that exposure to PFAS is associated with:
Increased cholesterol
Decreased antibody response to vaccines
Changes in liver function
Pregnancy issues like pre-eclampsia, and decreases in birth weight
Certain cancers
Potentially more effects
Because PFAS are a (relatively) new group of chemicals, and because there are so many kinds of PFAS, we are still actively learning about the full extent of their negative effects on people. There are other early and animal studies that suggest PFAS are related to more health issues, but it will take some time to confirm these, and to understand how serious they are. In general, researchers and doctors are highly concerned with PFAS and are a priority chemical to avoid.
Where are PFAS found in the home?
PFAS are found in a surprising number of places in your home. They come from oil, stain, and water -resistant products, as well as from the degradation of these products. Over time, these products invisibly shed PFAS off their surface, and they make their way into the air and dust in your home. Eventually, the airborne particles settle and dust gets into groundwater, which becomes tap water.
You may have experienced this type of shedding firsthand, noticing that a waterproof jacket becomes less waterproof over time, as you wear it or wash it.
Places you can find PFAS in your home include:
Wall paint: paints are made glossy and wear-resistant with PFAS
Carpets and rugs: stain- or water resistant carpeting and rugs may contain ScotchGuard or other types of PFAS coatings or treatments
Couch and furniture upholstery: stain- or water resistant upholstery is made with PFAS
Bedding: mattress pads, pillow protectors, comforters and blankets, especially those made with polyester, microfiber, or are advertised as repelling sweat or liquids
Non-stick pots and pans and bakeware: including Teflon, GenX, and other newer forms of non-stick technology
Furniture paints, glues, and varnishes: standard adhesives and finishes can contain PFAS
Electronics: PFAS are a common component in cables, electrical insulators, and computer parts
Air: as PFAS shed from products, some are small and light enough that they become airborne and float in indoor air until they settle into dust
Dust: house dust contains PFAS that shed off over time from home products
Tracked-in soil and soot from outdoors: fire retardants, and other PFAS chemicals used in transportation and industry, are tracked in on our shoes, into our homes
Water: as of 2023, 45% of water supplies in the US contain PFAS, and are not able to filter it out effectively before it reaches your home. This is because the technology to do this on a large citywide scale is expensive, time consuming, and difficult
Other personal products: unrelated to the home itself, PFAS are also in many personal care products like make-up, toiletries, clothing, and food packaging.
Can you test for PFAS in your home?
Yes, you can test for PFAS in your home.
SimpleLab offers several different types of PFAS testing for home products, including kits for textiles, soil, and plastic containers. Testing is still quite expensive, so if you don’t want to invest in this, you can also assume PFAS are present in water-resistant, and stain-resistant products, as well as in many plastics, and follow some of the mitigation strategies listed below.
For testing PFAS in tap water, MyTapScore has testing kits. If you have well water, it is possible that your state or county will pay for testing. Contact your officials directly for this information. If you have city tap water, you can check the city’s annual published water supply reports, EWG’s water database, or contact your supplier directly, in lieu of testing. (FYI, canned and bottled water regulations are not strict, and many have PFAS in them.)
One interesting thing to note is that we have testing available for around 40-50 types of PFAS, meaning there are 14,950 or more that we can’t yet test for. Therefore, if you receive a negative result on a home PFAS test, it doesn’t guarantee the total absence of PFAS.
Top Five Ways to Remove PFAS from Your Home
1. Use a water filter to remove PFAS
Certified water filters can remove PFAS. Choose one made with activated carbon that has been tested and certified by NSF, IAPMO, or WQA to meet the NSF/ANSI 53 standard. This standard is important because it means it can truly, effectively remove PFAS. The test results should also tell you how many gallons it met this standard for, so you know how long your filter will be effective for.
Removing PFAS from your cooking and daily drinking water is a great first step. See the certified under sink water filter options I recommend here.
2. Use an air purifier to remove PFAS from your indoor air, or open windows daily
If an air purifier contains activated carbon, it is able to remove PFAS from your indoor air. Not all air purifiers contain an activated carbon component; see the ones I recommend, including affordable options, that do, here.
If an air purifier isn’t in your budget, you can also open your windows daily. Indoor air contains higher levels of PFAS than outdoor air, so ventilating is a helpful first step.
Finally, make sure to regularly change your HVAC filter to reduce levels.
3. Reduce dust in your home daily and weekly
PFAS collect in dust after it settles from the air, and you track in soot, soil and dust from the outdoors that already contain PFAS. Remove your shoes when you walk in the door, and store them either outside, or in a designated area near your door. See the boot trays that won’t off-gas that I recommend here.
Wet-dusting and vacuuming weekly is also a very effective way to remove PFAS. Use a wet rag so that dust isn’t re-suspended into the air. If it’s in your budget, use a fully-sealed vacuum that contains a HEPA filter so that it doesn’t blow any PFAS or other particles back into the room as you use it. Here are the vacuums I have tried and recommend.
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4. Use PFAS-free cookware
Ingesting PFAS through eating is one of the main ways they get into your body. Use cast iron, stainless steel, or titanium cookware without PFAS non-stick coatings. Be cautious about any non-stick coating, and especially careful about misleading claims like “PFOA-free,” which only means it is only free of 1 of the 15,000 types of PFAS. See the details on this, as well as the pots and pans I recommend here. See the one-pot cookers like dutch ovens and slow cookers here, and bakeware here, including safer PFAS-free non-stick options.
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5. PFAS Free Toilet Paper
Yes, most toilet paper is made with PFAS!
This makes the top five because you use toilet paper multiple times daily, and it can release PFAS into your body in two ways. First, via direct contact when you wipe with it, and second, via the dust that’s created as you tear sheets off. This dust release PFAS into the air and settles onto surfaces.
Choose a low-dust PFAS free variety, or save money long-term with a bidet. See the options I recommend here.
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What else can you do to remove PFAS from your life?
Besides the top five methods I have listed above, which target the daily exposures specifically found as part of your home, the best thing you can do to avoid PFAS is to start reading labels and asking questions of the companies that make the products. If a brand doesn’t advertise that they’re PFAS free, call, chat with, or email them. Even if they don’t respond, or have a vague reply, it sends the message that you and other consumers care that PFAS aren’t in their products.
A few specific places to also consider:
Look for PFAS-free cosmetics: avoid waterproof mascara and other water-resistant make-up.
Use PFAS-free floss
If you use period underwear, ask the company to confirm they aren’t made with PFAS
Bring glass tupperware for take-out food, or quickly remove hot fast food from its oil-resistant packaging
Wear natural fibers for athletic wear, or ask the company to confirm no PFAS are used in their fabrics
Avoid stain, water, and oil resistant products, unless they specifically state that they are PFAS free or made with C0 DWR (this means, durable water repellancy with zero carbon-fluorine bonds).
Although PFAS can feel scary and overwhelming, there are daily manageable ways you can reduce your daily exposure to them. I hope this article helps.
