In April, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced historic rules designed to strictly control levels of five of the most studied PFAS in the nation’s drinking water, one of the routes of human exposure. Contamination can also come from the presence of PFAS in food packaging, stain-resistant textiles and thousands of consumer products such as cookware, tampons and cosmetics.
However, a new study takes a closer look at yet another, little studied avenue of possible exposure — the existence of PFAS in pesticides used in both agricultural and residential pest control, including pet flea treatments.
The PFAS pesticides are also used in flea treatments for pets and insect-killing sprays in homes, according to the research conducted by scientists at EWG, the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, Arizona, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility in Silver Spring, Maryland.