You’ve probably heard about PFAS. Or maybe not? Either way, it’s time to get science-y with our latest update.
Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are a category of thousands of human-made chemicals, defined by the strong bond between carbon and fluorine atoms. And, truth be told, they have some pretty useful properties. Among other things, they help make clothing water resistant, keep food from sticking to pans and even make firefighting gear flame resistant.
Buuuuut, this doesn't mean they're good. PFAS don’t “go away” naturally (although some break down into other PFAS), which is why they’re nicknamed “forever chemicals” – they’re forever building up in our environment, water, soil, air, food and blood. PFAS are found at low levels everywhere, and scientists have been working their bums off to see what kind of effect they have on humans.
Some PFAS have been proven to be harmful to our health, and over many years, regulations have been put in place to, well, regulate their use. But we can’t simply keep up with all the PFAS. Understandably, scientists are concerned that many (if not all) of the thousands of PFAS in existence are just as impactful as the few we know about. For this reason, countries around the world are shifting towards restricting the use of all PFAS as an entire class of restricted substances.
If this is all starting to sound a little scary, take a breath. There are plenty of simple things you can do to reduce your risk of PFAS exposure.
So, do our products contain PFAS?
We don’t, and never will, intentionally add PFAS to our products. But we know that PFAS could be hiding in ingredients like printing inks or coatings, or could even be transferred from PFAS-contaminated water or machinery. For this reason, we specify that our products are free from added PFAS – and we test our products and packaging to double check. When we asked independent testing labs to test for “all PFAS”, we learned that nobody could do this. So instead, we work with labs that can test for a long list of PFAS, as well as total organic fluorine content (an indicator of potential PFAS content), to cover as much as possible.
Through our regular testing, we have found some trace amounts of organic fluorine which is an indicator that PFAS may be present. But, we won't stop there! We are sooo committed to investigating where this contamination is coming from, and making changes to continuously improve.
The default limit for total organic fluorine content is 100 parts per million (ppm), but future limits are likely to be even stricter, dropping down to 50 ppm. Currently, all our products meet the future limit, and our internal target is to maintain levels even below that.
Well then why don’t you call your products PFAS-free?
Technically, we’re able to say our products are free from PFAS. But because PFAS are so pervasive (they are in our water, even our blood!) we feel it’s very difficult to claim PFAS-free because trace amounts can be introduced from anywhere.
What steps are you taking to ensure your products are free from PFAS?
We communicate with factories and suppliers about our “No PFAS” policy
We rigorously test our products and packaging (think cardboard roll cores, printing inks) for PFAS as well as total organic fluorine as an indicator of PFAS content
We work with factories and suppliers to identify any suspected sources of PFAS and eliminate, replace, or manage them in order to achieve the lowest levels of PFAS and total organic fluorine possible
We created an internal team (full of super smart science nerds) to ensure we’re actively keeping our products in the safe zone
Are your products safe?
Yep, they sure are! The bottom line (hehe, bottom) is that all our products are safe for you to use. And if you’re concerned about reducing risks from consumer products containing PFAS, rest assured we’re doing our best to ensure our products are as close to PFAS-free as possible. We’re benchmarking against global regulations, including those expected in the future, and our internal targets are even stricter. And because we want to be totally transparent and honest with you, we’ll continue to test and work to eliminate even the tiniest amount of PFAS we might find in our products.