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Good news for consumers (Full article)

There are an increasing number of ways consumer can avoid clothing and

other products laced with PFAS, experts say. One of the most effective:

voting with your pocketbook.

"The easiest thing a consumer can do is don't buy things that are

marketed as stain- and water-resistant," EWG's Benesh said. "When it

comes to clothing you want to be more waterproof, I think you'd have to

do your research with the retailer to see which products are actually

PFAS-free."

There are lists of companies which are PFAS-free -- or at least are in the

process of becoming so, experts say. The Environmental Working Group

has curated a list of companies who have not intentionally added PFAS to

their products.

Manufacturers allowed baby food contaminated with heavy metals to

remain on shelves, lawmakers say

Manufacturers allowed baby food contaminated with heavy metals to

remain on shelves, lawmakers say

Consumers can also check the list of GreenScreen Certified products,

which is a "globally recognized tool designed to assess and benchmark

chemicals based on hazard," said Shari Franjevic, the GreenScreen

program manager for Clean Production Action, an organization dedicated

to assessing green chemicals, sustainable materials and environmentally

preferable products.

"The key value of GreenScreen is that it takes really complex toxicology

and distills it down to a score between one and four in harm (with four

being the safest). That allows people to place chemicals on a continuum

and say, 'OK, this is safer than that,' and begin to select safer chemicals

for their products."

You still may need to read labels, however. That's because not every item

in a company's portfolio may yet be free of toxic chemicals, while legacy

products being phased out may still be on the shelves in stores.

Reading a label may be tougher than you think, considering the alphabet

soup of initials used to name various PFAS chemicals. Here are just a

few:

PFBA

PFPeA

PFHxA

PFUdA

PFDoA

PFTrDA

PFHpA

PFTeDA

PFNA

PFDA

PFHxDA

PFODA.

That list doesn't include the two legacy chemicals being phased out:

PFOA and PFOS.

"The most common way companies mislead is that they'll say it's PFOA-

free, even though other PFAS's have been used in the product," said

Scott Faber, EWG's senior vice president for government affairs.

And you can learn more about PFAS via

this English/Spanish fact sheet: PFAS Fact

Sheet (PDF).