You can’t smell, see or taste these chemicals ....

PFAS: you can’t smell, see or taste these chemicals, but they are everywhere – and they’re highly toxic to humans.

Humans perceive risk based largely on what we can see, smell and taste. Those senses serve us well when there are perceptible dangers to our health and the environment.

We can see and smell raw sewage and as such it is widely perceived as a risk to human and environmental health. The increasing concern of scientists about the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in sewage has confirmed its actual risk. The Environment Agency also reports that pollution from sewage discharge is a leading cause of poor river quality in England.

But there are serious chemical threats, called perflouroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), that we cannot perceive because they are colourless and odourless. Now present in our drinking water and natural ecosystems, high level exposure to these toxic chemicals can elicit a range of negative health effects in humans and wildlife. These include an increased risk of certain cancers, kidney disease, cholesterol, reproductive and developmental disruption and a decreased vaccine response.

https://theconversation.com/pfas-you-cant-smell-see-or-taste-these-chemicals-but-they-are-everywhere-and-theyre-highly-toxic-to-humans-196168

So much around us is polluting and toxic and cannot be seen. It is worrying.

How did they get there?.....

Exactly and it's only going to get worse with the removal of protective environmental laws.

What are PFAS?

First developed in the 1940s, PFAS are a large group of more than 4,000 synthetic chemicals. Commonly known as “forever chemicals”, their properties make them water and oil repellent and highly resistant to chemical and thermal breakdown.

They are therefore ingredients in various everyday products and as such are all around us. Non-stick frying pans, waterproof rain jackets, flame retardant sofas and carpets, food packaging, makeup and countless other items all contain these chemicals.

But PFAS can persist in the environment for hundreds or thousands of years. Research estimates that it takes more than 1,000 years on average for the chemical concentration of some PFAS to reduce by 50% in soil.

I find it interesting and it's a problem around the world.

So what is the answer to get rid of these toxic chemicals?

The answer? To stop, producing them! But of course, this will not happen, because they are cheap and easy to produce and, as propaganda tells us, are helpful in many ways.
One can see the world as a mosaic. Light stones depict positives and dark ones, negatives. The picture that emerges is getting darker all the time. Why? Because influential humans care only about money. If that would not be the case, humanity would tackle the many problems we are responsible for and have created ourselves. Everybody talks about it, but very little is actually done. For example, for years, it has been known that the output of greenhouse gases needs to be urgently reduced, but last year, it was the fourth highest output worldwide! Does anything more need to be said?

Just about anything and everything thats ever been discovered, developed, manufactured or whatever, has some sort of adverse side effects of some sort.
So when something like teflon was created, it was regarded as brilliant. But there are always going to be some form of adverse side effects. Now, years and tears later, studies are taking place, and surprise surpise as Cilla would say, there are some potentially harmfull offshoots or side effects or some such.
Well blow me!

I'm not sure if blowing you will solve the problem.

Blowing has unfortunate connotations.  I'm not going there.

Z_Z and MtM I will pretend I don't understand lol

You are a very wise man, Mazer, as I have commented before.

tbh, it might be a bit late to do very much.  They are here in dangerous quantities and they persist, even without making more.  It's worth pointing out that these things didn't exist until the advent of the petrochemical industry and they came about because chemists looked for ways to use the fractions from the distilleries that could not be used for fuel and energy.  They are in fact from a side product of the industry that makes petrol etc for transport.

Now if we were hypothetically to knock fossil fuels on the head and stop extracting oil from the ground, it makes you wonder what will be used instead to replace these toxic chemicals.  Perhaps what people may not realise is that these products have come into use for very important health and safety applications.  Fire proofing coatings on firemen's uniforms springs to mind.  They have so many uses, many of them that are integral into keeping too many humans that live in too close proximity to one another safe, it's hard to see what we would do instead, in practical terms.

Minnie. I think you are on a roll today. Some really great posts.

Thankyou, Templar.  That's very kind of you.  :)

tbh, it might be a bit late to do very much. They are here in dangerous quantities and they persist, even without making more. It's worth pointing out that these things didn't exist until the advent of the petrochemical industry and they came about because chemists looked for ways to use the fractions from the distilleries that could not be used for fuel and energy. They are in fact from a side product of the industry that makes petrol etc for transport.

Now if we were hypothetically to knock fossil fuels on the head and stop extracting oil from the ground, it makes you wonder what will be used instead to replace these toxic chemicals. Perhaps what people may not realise is that these products have come into use for very important health and safety applications. Fire proofing coatings on firemen's uniforms springs to mind. They have so many uses, many of them that are integral into keeping too many humans that live in too close proximity to one another safe, it's hard to see what we would do instead, in practical terms.

Voted excellent.