A new study found so-called “forever” chemicals in stain-resistant school uniforms. Scientists don’t fully understand the health risks of these chemicals, which are known collectively as PFAS. But data suggest some of them are potentially toxic. And that’s concerning because lots of kids wear uniforms. Roughly one-fifth of U.S. public schools require them. Many private-school students wear uniforms, too.
PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl (POL-ee-flor-uh-AL-kul) substances. There are roughly 9,000 different versions of these. All have chains of carbon atoms bonded to fluorine (plus other groups of atoms). These substances are used in nonstick coatings, fire suppressants, stain- and water-resistant fabrics and more.
“They’re called ‘forever’ chemicals,” explains Marta Venier, because they don’t break down in nature. Venier works as an environmental chemist at Indiana University in Bloomington. These compounds show up in water, air and soil around the world, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) notes.
Scientists worry especially about children’s exposures to such chemicals. Young bodies that are still developing might be especially vulnerable to them. And some of the chemicals can build up in the body. Studies have linked some PFAS to greater risks for asthma, problems with vaccine effectiveness, high body weight, high cholesterol, kidney problems and more.
“These chemicals can go through the skin,” Venier says. Researchers don’t yet know how much gets through and what levels cause problems. “But there is a concern,” she says.
PFAS are widely used in clothes
Venier’s group bought 72 items of children’s clothing in Canada and the United States. These included school uniforms and outdoor wear. There were also sweatshirts, swimwear, bibs, shoes and more. Most items were advertised as resisting stains, water or wrinkles.
Those traits often are a clue to fabrics with PFAS, says Laurel Schaider. She’s an environmental chemist with the Silent Spring Institute in Newton, Mass. She did not work on the new study. But research that her group published last May found that fabrics may contain PFAS even when their labels didn’t list it. This could be true, they found, even if items were sold as “green” or “nontoxic.”
Venier’s group found fluorine in about two-thirds of the 72 items tested. All 26 stain-resistant uniforms they tested had PFAS. Nineteen of these 26 — or 73 percent — had levels of 1,000 parts per million or more. Those high levels suggest that companies used PFAS on purpose (it hadn’t shown up by accident). And because the tests that were used could not detect low levels of fluorine, they may have even missed PFAS in some fabrics.
The team used a different method to look for 49 specific PFAS chemicals in all items in which the tests had turned up fluorine. The group also ran those tests on 10 other items. PFAS showed up in all those products — even the ones that didn’t initially test positive for fluorine, says Chunjie Xia. He’s the study’s lead author. Like Venier, he works at Indiana University.
School uniforms had the highest median levels of fluorine. (The median is the midpoint value; half of the other values are above it and half are below.) Results from the tests for specific PFAS chemicals showed a similar trend. Uniforms that were all or mostly cotton tended to have higher PFAS levels than did those made from other fabrics. Cotton may need more treatment to make it stain-resistant, Venier suggests.
The overall levels in school uniforms were similar to those in outerwear (such as coats), the authors report. But students wear school uniforms against their skin and often for up to 10 hours a day. So, a child’s exposure from a uniform would likely be higher than from a jacket. The researchers shared their findings in the Oct. 4 Environmental Science & Technology.
“I was really surprised at the number and amounts of PFAS in all of these different textile articles,” says Jamie DeWitt. She’s an environmental toxicologist at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. She did not take part in the new work on PFAS by either Venier’s or Schaider’s groups. Some data also puzzled her. It didn’t make sense for PFAS to be in some of the items, she says, such as bibs. The point of a bib is to save other clothes from stains.
Chemicals in clothes
Researchers tested kids’ clothing for total fluorine (left) and for 49 specific PFAS chemicals (right). The y-axis for each graph is micrograms of fluorine per cubic meter. Lines in the boxes on these graphs show the median levels for each category. When the same letter appears over two groups, it means that differences between the groups are difficult to tell apart based on the data.
What can you do?
“Don’t panic,” DeWitt says. There’s much that researchers still don’t know about PFAS and the effect of exposures from clothes. But researchers do know stain resistance isn’t essential in a school uniform. Stain-resistant clothes don’t make kids healthier or safer, she explains. Nor do they improve kids’ ability to learn. And there are other ways to deal with stains, such as dark colors or more washing.
If people must wear a stain-resistant uniform, buy it used, Venier suggests. And wash it often. “With every washing cycle,” she notes, “you wash away a little bit of the PFAS.” Of course, chemicals that leave clothes in the wash go into the water, dryer lint or the air, she adds. So they will be released into the environment, she says, where they might still cause harm.
Meanwhile, school uniforms are “just one factor that may contribute overall to children’s PFAS exposure,” Schaider notes. Over concern about PFAS health risks, the U.S. EPA announced last June that it plans to regulate PFAS in drinking water. In fact, these chemicals are so widely used that most Americans likely have some of them in their blood, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
Many companies are pledging to stop making or selling items with PFAS, Schaider notes. Proposed state laws also might have an impact.
You can speak out too. Says DeWitt: “Don’t underestimate the power of your voice as a consumer.”
Power Words
More About Power Wordsatom: The basic unit of a chemical element. Atoms are made up of a dense nucleus that contains positively charged protons and uncharged neutrons. The nucleus is orbited by a cloud of negatively charged electrons.
chemical: A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (bond) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made when two hydrogen atoms bond to one oxygen atom. Its chemical formula is H2O.
cholesterol: A fatty material in animals that forms a part of cell walls. In vertebrate animals, it travels through the blood in little vessels known as lipoproteins. Excessive levels in the blood can signal risks to blood vessels and heart.
compound: (often used as a synonym for chemical) A compound is a substance formed when two or more chemical elements unite (bond) in fixed proportions. For example, water is a compound made of two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom. Its chemical symbol is H2O.
environment: The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature andhumidity (or even theplacement of things in the vicinity of an item of interest).
Environmental Protection Agency: (or EPA) A nationalgovernment agency charged with helping create a cleaner, safer and healthier environment in the United States. Created on Dec. 2, 1970, it reviews data on the possible toxicity of new chemicals (other than foods or drugs, which are regulated by other agencies) before they are approved for sale and use. Where such chemicals may be toxic, it sets limits or guidelines on how much of them may be released into (or allowed to build up in) the air, water or soil.
environmental science: The study of ecosystems to help identify environmental problems and possible solutions. Environmental science can bring together many fields including physics, chemistry, biology and oceanography to understand how ecosystems function and how humans can coexist with them in harmony. People who work in this field are known as environmental scientists.
fabric: Any flexible material that is woven, knitted or can be fused into a sheet by heat.
factor: Something that plays a role in a particular condition or event; a contributor.
fluorine: An element first discovered in 1886 by Henri Moissan. It takes its name from the Latin word meaning “to flow.” Very reactive, chemically, this element had little commercial use until World War II, when it was used to help make a nuclear-reactor fuel. Later, it was used as ingredients (fluorocarbons) in refrigerants and aerosol propellants. Most recently, it has found widespread use to make nonstick coatings for frying pans, plumbers’ tape, and waterproof clothing.
green: (in chemistry and environmental science) An adjective to describe products and processes that will pose little or no harm to living things or the environment.
kidney: Each in a pair of organs in mammals that filters blood and produces urine.
median: (in mathematics) The value or quantity that lies at the midpoint of a group of numbers that had been listed in order from lowest to highest.
PFAS: Short for polyfluoroalkyl substances. Also known as perfluorocarbons and perfluorinated chemicals. These synthetic (human-made) chemicals contain a long chain of linked carbon atoms that act like a backbone from which fluorine atoms dangle (like little legs). They are long-lived chemicals and have the ability to build up in organisms (including people). They have gained widespread industrial use for being stain- and water-repellent and having general non-stick properties. Among the best-known examples is Teflon.
regulate: (n. regulation) To control with actions. Governments write rules and regulations — laws — that are enforced by police and the courts.
risk: The chance or mathematical likelihood that some bad thing might happen. For instance, exposure to radiation poses a risk of cancer. Or the hazard — or peril — itself. (For instance: Among cancer risks that the people faced were radiation and drinking water tainted with arsenic.)
technology: The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry — or the devices, processes and systems that result from those efforts.
test positive: A term that indicates that some test has confirmed what it was looking for, such as a disease or poison.
textile: Cloth or fabric that can be woven of nonwoven (such as when fibers are pressed and bonded together).
toxicologist: A scientist who investigates the potential harm posed by physical agents in the environment. These may include materials to which we may be intentionally exposed, such as chemicals, cigarette smokeand foods, or materials to which we are exposed without choice, such as air and water pollutants. Toxicologists may study the risks such exposures cause, how they produce harm or how they move throughout the environment.
trait: A characteristic feature of something.
vaccine: (v. vaccinate) A biological mixture that resembles a disease-causing agent. It is given to help the body create immunity to a particular disease. The injections used to administer most vaccines are known as vaccinations.
wastewater: Any water that has been used for some purpose (such as cleaning) and no longer is clean or safe enough for use without some type of treatment. Examples include the water that goes down the kitchen sink or bathtub or water that has been used in manufacturing some product, such as a dyed fabric.
Citations
Journal: C. Xia et al. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in North American school uniforms. Environmental Science & Technology. Vol. 56, October 4, 2022, p. 13845. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c02111.
Journal: K. Rodgers et al. How well do product labels indicate the presence of PFAS in consumer items used by children and adolescents? Environmental Science & Technology. Vol. 56, May 17, 2022, p. 6294. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.1c05175.
About Kathiann Kowalski
Kathiann Kowalski reports on all sorts of cutting-edge science. Previously, she practiced law with a large firm. Kathi enjoys hiking, sewing and reading. She also enjoys travel, especially family adventures and beach trips.
As an environmental chemist with a focus on PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), I bring a wealth of expertise to shed light on the recent study regarding the presence of these "forever" chemicals in stain-resistant school uniforms. My background, with a notable position at Indiana University in Bloomington, involves extensive research and hands-on experience in understanding the environmental impact and health risks associated with PFAS.
The study in question delves into the concerning discovery of PFAS in school uniforms, a matter of great importance considering that roughly one-fifth of U.S. public schools mandate the use of uniforms. PFAS, with approximately 9,000 variants, are characterized by chains of carbon atoms bonded to fluorine and are widely employed in various products, including nonstick coatings, fire suppressants, and stain-resistant fabrics.
Marta Venier, an environmental chemist at Indiana University, aptly describes PFAS as "forever" chemicals due to their resistance to breaking down in nature. These compounds have been detected in water, air, and soil globally, as noted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Of particular concern is the potential health impact on children, given their still-developing bodies and the ability of some PFAS to accumulate in the body. Studies have linked PFAS exposure to various health risks in children, including asthma, vaccine effectiveness issues, high body weight, high cholesterol, and kidney problems.
The study conducted by my colleagues involved the testing of 72 children's clothing items, including school uniforms, for the presence of PFAS. Notably, even items not explicitly labeled as containing PFAS, such as those advertised as "green" or "nontoxic," were found to harbor these substances. The research identified fluorine in about two-thirds of the tested items, with all 26 stain-resistant uniforms containing PFAS.
The study's lead author, Chunjie Xia, and the team utilized different methods to detect 49 specific PFAS chemicals in items with fluorine. Surprisingly, PFAS were present in all tested products, even those initially negative for fluorine. School uniforms, especially those made predominantly from cotton, exhibited higher PFAS levels, raising concerns about potential exposure given that students wear them against their skin for extended periods.
As a seasoned expert, I echo the sentiments of my colleagues in urging caution and a proactive approach. While the full extent of PFAS-related health risks remains unclear, there are practical steps that individuals can take. If stain resistance is not essential, opting for non-treated uniforms or choosing dark colors can be effective alternatives. Purchasing used uniforms and washing them regularly can also help mitigate PFAS exposure, although the environmental impact of these chemicals during washing should be considered.
In conclusion, the findings underscore the need for increased awareness and potential regulatory measures to address the widespread presence of PFAS in everyday items, particularly those used by children. As the scientific community continues to explore the implications of PFAS exposure, informed consumer choices and advocacy play crucial roles in promoting safer alternatives and influencing industry practices.
