A new study entitled How Well Do Product Labels Indicate the Presence of PFAS in Consumer Items Used by Children and Adolescents? was published at the beginning of the month. The authors tested products “that children and adolescents are likely to have frequent contact with on a regular basis.” Those products included many with “green” labels, such as “nontoxic” and “chemical-free.”
The authors concluded that “PFAS are commonly found in stain- and water-resistant products used by children and adolescents, regardless of green or nontoxic assurances on product labels.” In fact, they reported detecting PFAS in nearly 58% of children’s “waterproof” or “stain-resistant” textiles, with highest concentrations found in school uniform shirts.

Ecology Center Issues Report On PFAS In Children’s Car Seats
The Ecology Center released a report in April detailing its findings testing over 600 components of different brands of car seats. The study reports that 4 of the 19 car seats tested contain “water- and stain-resistant fabrics likely containing PFAS, based on testing for total organic fluorine.” It gave those brands a rating of “High Concern” (with an unhappy emoji).

The report “urge[s] car seat companies to stop using PFAS and instead make car seat and stroller covers easy to remove and wash.”

Study Links PFAS to Liver Damage
A recent literature review and meta-analysis funded by the National Institute of Health was published at the end of April. The authors concluded that “[d]ata from human studies consistently demonstrate an association between PFOA, PFOS, and PFNA and markers of liver injury” and that “[c]omplementary evidence from experimental rodent studies provides biological plausibility that this association may be causal.”
The article calls nonalcoholic fatty liver disease “a public health epidemic,” noting that “cases in the United States are expected to number 100.9 million, or about one-third of all adults, by 2030.”