Coffee, eggs and white rice linked to higher levels of PFAS in human body ( www.theguardian.com )

New research aimed at identifying foods that contain higher levels of PFAS found people who eat more white rice, coffee, eggs and seafood typically showed more of the toxic chemicals in their plasma and breast milk.

The study checked samples from 3,000 pregnant mothers, and is among the first research to suggest coffee and white rice may be contaminated at higher rates than other foods. It also identified an association between red meat consumption and levels of PFOS, one of the most common and dangerous PFAS compounds.

“The results definitely point toward the need for environmental stewardship, and keeping PFAS out of the environment and food chain,” said Megan Romano, a Dartmouth researcher and lead author. “Now we’re in a situation where they’re everywhere and are going to stick around even if we do aggressive remediation.”

MonkderDritte ,

PFAS-fouled sewage sludge, which is used as a cheap alternative to fertilizer

People still do that, with all the hormones and heavy metals? Modern human is above wolfes and sharkes in the food chain.

uis ,
@uis@lemm.ee avatar

Eww, who eats wolfes?

MonkderDritte ,

At least medieval people did eat dogs and cats ocasionally. And foxes & co.

uis ,
@uis@lemm.ee avatar

Yes, but wolves?

MonkderDritte ,

Taste like dog.

Wahots ,
@Wahots@pawb.social avatar

PFAS-fouled sewage sludge, which is used as a cheap alternative to fertilizer

Well, considering that toilet paper is full of PFAS to help it break down super easily, yeah, I'm not surprised.

Either make TP without PFAS, which will make it jam up pipes more, or use a bidet.

NoMoreLurkingToo ,

Or stop flushing fucking toilet paper down the toilet.

Leate_Wonceslace ,

This comment brought to you by the dysentery gang.

Kit ,

What else would you do with it?

Evil_Shrubbery ,

The PFAS and plastics boundary lines in fossil records will be indeed very distinct.

werefreeatlast ,

Someone already mentioned this indirectly but I think this correlation is because all three items mentioned go on to be cooked in cookware coated in PTFE or mixed with spatulas and other utensils coated in PTFE.

PTFE is indispensable for high tech uses such as well almost all processes where high temperature near water boiling point is required. 100 to 200C for example. Now, because of its original use as a food process coating, PTFE is about to be banned in a stupid way.

I much rather have it banned from food use articles and allow it for use in niche technology. That would make the material more expensive and so less profitable to use in stupid uses where other materials are available.

KillingTimeItself ,

its a good thing i don't drink coffee.

Now i can pretend i don't consume the other things listed here instead!

tatterdemalion ,
@tatterdemalion@programming.dev avatar

Got PDFs in my bones. Adobe pls.

grrgyle ,
@grrgyle@slrpnk.net avatar

I don't know how I would face the day without white rice...

sem ,

I don't know what I'd do without coffee

grrgyle ,
@grrgyle@slrpnk.net avatar

I actually did manage to sub out coffee for tea, and can now go a day without caffeine for the first time since college. It's kind of an empowering feeling, that I would recommend.

Theharpyeagle ,

Honestly I doubt it matters. They'll just keep adding more things to the list, this shit is everywhere.

nialv7 ,

This is our generation's lead

Fades ,

You've gotta be fucking kidding me. NOTHING IS SAFE ANYMORE GODDAMNIT

blind3rdeye ,

Nothing is safe, except the huge wealth advantage of billionaires.

Corvidae ,

I just made a batch of white rice, once cooked I freeze it on baking paper. Not long ago I looked into baking paper, it's loaded with some kind of plastic non-stick chemicals.

huginn ,

Coffee, eggs, white rice

Selection bias much?

If you don't consume any of those 3 you're probably ridiculously wealthy on some freaky diet.

All this says to me is "The food of the masses is contaminated" which yeah - we already knew the rich pay a premium to get less contaminated food.

iopq ,

I went to Kazakhstan and people there don't eat any of those things

The traditional foodstuffs are flour and meat, with a lot of things made from milk

huginn ,

Call me crazy but I don't think traditional Kazakh diets were part of the study of 3000 pregnant mothers in New Hampshire.

iopq ,

Of course not, I'm just saying your don't need to eat those foods to survive

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Suggesting we all switch to a meat-heavy diet is the worst possible suggestion for us and for the planet.

Dkarma ,

And yet it's worked for many societies for millennia...hmmm

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Yes, back before there were eight billion people on this planet. Farming vastly more amounts of methane-spewing animals than we do now is an insanely bad idea.

Maeve ,

I'm wondering if factory farms were eliminated, how much the environmental damage would be reduced.

Shanedino ,

You should start using your urine to wash your clothes it worked for society for millenia...hmmm

Aux ,

No, it's not.

huginn ,

Nobody was saying that you must eat eggs to survive - the point is to show the flaws in the hypothesis of the study when related to the sample group.

If you are sampling 3000 mothers in New Hampshire and looking for those who eat less poor people food and more rich people food you should expect to see a correlation that can be equally described by socioeconomic status as it can by diet.

nondescripthandle ,

Huxley warned us that the things we love would kill us but I'd don't think he thought it would be like this particular case.

taiyang ,

Coffee and rice? Just fucking kill me already, lol

massive_bereavement ,
@massive_bereavement@fedia.io avatar

Or:

I'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie world
Life in plastic, it's fantastic~

Yawweee877h444 ,

Yeah seriously! These three things are literally my daily staples.

skuzz ,

Eat brown rice?

rbesfe ,

Your regular reminder that Teflon (PTFE) microplastics are completely harmless and are by far the most common PFAS in the environment

Screamium ,

Do you have a source handy for that?

girlfreddy OP ,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

Yes, except in order to make PTFE you have to use PFAS ... so it's a double-edged sword.

fern ,

Completely harmless? Doubt it.

stoneparchment ,
@stoneparchment@possumpat.io avatar

The literature on PTFEs illustrates that it is, at best, uncertain whether there are health harms relating to contact and ingestion. Most of the studies struggle with confounds, controls, and sample sizes because almost literally everyone has been exposed to PTFEs. Toxicity researchers would not definitively agree that it is "completely harmless".

The other commenter is right, also, that PFOA and GenX (the chemical, not the generation) are more evidently harmful and both involved in, and released from, the creation of PTFE.

Just throwing this out here in case someone is like "wait, IS Teflon fine???"

Veraxus ,

Is that because of the food products themselves, or because of the non-stick coatings frequently used to package/cook/brew/prepare them?

girlfreddy OP ,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

Because of their ubiquitous usage and environmental persistence, humans are exposed to a variety of PFAS, primarily through ingestion of contaminated water and food, though PFAS have also been detected in air, indoor dust, and consumer products (Domingo and Nadal, 2017; Sunderland et al., 2019).

While certain communities can be highly exposed to PFAS due to proximity to an industrial site or occupational exposure, PFAS exposure is ubiquitous among human populations, with 98 % of the U.S. population having detectable concentrations of PFAS in their blood (Calafat et al., 2007; National Center for Environmental Health Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2023).

Veraxus ,

Thanks!

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • news@lemmy.world
  • test
  • worldmews
  • mews
  • All magazines
    •