Hey everyone. Steve Milloy, here.
I want to briefly tackle the “forever chemical” hoax.
So-called “forever chemicals” are a class of substances invented in the late 1930s.
They have been used in nonstick cookware -- think Teflon -- and innumerable other consumer products for their water and oil resistant, and nonstick properties.
Though they go by the acronyms of PFAS and PFOS, greens and their media running dogs try to terrify the unknowing public by calling them “forever chemicals.”
While the chemicals are very stable and don’t readily degrade in the environment, they don’t last “forever.” Nothing does.
But their chemical stability is exactly why they are used and is their saving grace. They don’t react with the environment. And they don’t react with your body.
They are, after all, water, oil and even heat resistant.
As with many widely used manmade organic chemicals, they are now ubiquitous in our environment. Avoiding exposure to forever chemicals is impossible at this point.
The good news is two-fold: First, they are essentially inert. They don’t react and they don’t readily breakdown.
Second, although they are ubiquitous in the environment, they are present in very low concentrations, on the order of parts per trillion or quadrillion.
We need advanced technology to detect and measure them.
The fundamental principle of toxicology is that the dose makes the poison. Everything is toxic at some level. Even the purest water. Drinking too much water will kill you.
Despite what you read in the media about forever chemicals, there is no research, not one bit, that shows levels of forever chemicals in the environment have caused any toxic or harmful effects to anyone.
Even mid-20th century chemical workers were not harmed from exposure.
For years, I have been challenging greens, the EPA, and media to produce some evidence of harm caused by forever chemicals. But they haven’t because they can’t.
Mere detection of and exposure to forever chemicals is not the same thing as then causing harm.
The forever chemical scare persists - ha ha -- because the chemical industry gave up defending itself decades years ago.
Industry management would rather just pay billions of dollars to the government and trial lawyers, and the reformulate their products for higher profits than argue about the science.
This may make short-term economic sense for industry management, but we all pay the price for this in terms of pointlessly higher prices for consumer products, reduced industry innovation and the unjust enrichment of creepy personal injury lawyers, radical green activists and government.
We are the healthiest and wealthiest society that’s ever been. Chemicals, including so-called “forever chemicals,” have played a key role in improving our standard of living for more than 85 years.
Stay up with the latest on the “forever chemical” hoax.
Follow me on X @JunkScience and at my web site JunkScience.com
Thanks for watching.