Lightly regulated 'forever chemicals,' given out in sludge fertilizer, are so ubiquitous they're in rain at unsafe levels

Scientists are increasingly alarmed about the health risks of exposure to synthetic substances often dubbed 'forever chemicals.' Adding to those fears: A recent Stockholm University study shows that the chemicals are so ubiquitous that rainwater in most places on Earth contains amounts of the chemicals that "greatly exceed" safe levels, Matt McGrath reports for the BBC. In short, "There is no safe space on Earth to avoid them."

Polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAs, are used in everything from fast-food wrappers and water-repellent clothing to non-stick cookware and firefighting foam. They're designed to be sturdy, but that means they also last a long time in the environment, and also in the human body, and "Soil around the world is similarly contaminated, evidence suggests," McGrath reports.

There are a few reasons for that: Rainfall is one, but PFAs are present in common pesticides. Also, many farmers are offered free or inexpensive sewage sludge as fertilizer—which often happens to have unsafe levels of PFAs. Thousands of acres of farmland near Chicago has been contaminated with the chemicals. "During the past six years alone, federal records show, more than 615,000 tons of sludge from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago has been plowed into 29,000 acres near the nation’s third largest city," Michael Hawthorne reports for the Chicago Tribune. "Only the Greater Los Angeles area distributed more sludge to farmers between 2016 and 2021." A 2011 study of Chicago-area farmland found some of the highest PFAs concentrations in the nation.

"Researchers and public health advocates are increasingly concerned because some PFAS build up in human blood, take years to leave the body and don’t break down in the environment. Others transform over time into more hazardous compounds, increasing the risk that grains, beans, hay and produce grown in sludge-amended soil could be tainted for years to come," Hawthorne reports. "Long-term exposure to tiny concentrations of certain PFAs can trigger testicular and kidney cancer, birth defects, liver damage, impaired fertility, immune system disorders, high cholesterol and obesity, studies have found. Links to breast cancer and other diseases are suspected. Yet forever chemicals remain largely unregulated."