As far back as 1961, secretly held company documents show that Teflon's head toxicologist knew that some types of long-lasting PFAS should not make contact with the skin.
Fast forward to 2024, and independent scientists are only now beginning to show that the skin is a significant source of exposure for some of the most widespread and well-studied PFAS chemicals out there.
When these stubbornly persistent materials were first created more than half a century ago, companies like DuPont – the maker of Teflon – were aware that some of these non-stick, waterproof substances were "highly toxic" when inhaled and "moderately toxic" when ingested.
Today, PFAS are found in numerous products designed especially for our dermis, including cosmetics as ubiquitous as sunscreen, moisturizers, and cleansers.
"The ability of these chemicals to be absorbed through skin has previously been dismissed because the molecules are ionized," explains environmental scientist Oddný Ragnarsdóttir.
"The electrical charge that gives them the ability to repel water and stains was thought to also make them incapable of crossing the skin membrane."
Experiments conducted by Ragnarsdóttir and her team suggest that is not necessarily true in all cases.
Today, more than 12,000 known PFAS variants are available on the market, but at this point, scientists do not know enough about how cosmetic products relate to forever chemicals in the bloodstream, or if those pollutants have toxic effects in the body, and at what level of exposure.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240627083832/https://www.sciencealert.com/forever-chemicals-seep-through-human-skin-alarming-study-confirms