A new study has proved for the first time that a wide range of synthetic chemicals are absorbed through human skin. The study looked at 17 commonly used chemicals which are widely used in consumer products from waterproof clothing and school uniforms to personal care products.
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00:00PFAS are persistent chemicals, man-made chemicals that have been used for decades now and these
00:10are very persistent chemicals.
00:11They stay in the environment for a long time and yeah, they have been found to affect human
00:20health once they have reached our bodies.
00:22And so with regard to your study in particular, what did you find in terms of to what extent
00:30can PFAS chemicals be absorbed through human skin?
00:36So we, like you said, we investigated 17 PFAS and out of these 17 we found that 8 of them
00:42were directly absorbed so they were able to penetrate through our skin and enter the bloodstream.
00:48And it was, we saw up to 58% of the dose we applied on top of the skin was permeated.
00:56So it was quite a big, big dose, but this is, was different for the different PFAS we
01:01were investigating.
01:03So the, but the biggest permeation was 58% and then it decreased for the other compounds
01:09and some of them were not absorbed directly, but we did find them within the skin after,
01:14at the end of our exposure.
01:16So still some of them are, even though they weren't permeating all the way through, they
01:21were still able to enter into the skin.
01:24Yeah. And so talking about exposure there, how long does it take for the absorption to
01:30start?
01:31For example, how long does makeup have to be on before it starts happening or how long
01:37do you have to have clothes on for that absorption to start?
01:43So this again, really changed this dependent on which compound it is for the, we were looking
01:50at different chain lengths, carbon chain length of PFAS and for the shorter chain ones,
01:56we saw the permeation happened after just a few minutes or like less than an hour, while
02:02for other, it took up to six hours or seven hours to permeate.
02:07So, but that was for the compounds that reached the bloodstream.
02:11So I cannot say for the compounds how long it takes just to enter the skin, but to reach
02:16the bloodstream, it was from a few minutes up to six hours.
02:21And were you able to tell how much of the PFAS was absorbed within those periods of time?
02:34Yes, we, there we have like a, yes, we were able to see like how the exposure happened.
02:43We saw like a curve just start slowly and then it starts happening more quickly after
02:48after some while, and then it kind of slows down back again.
02:51Yeah.
02:52So I'm not sure if you want to go to this question next, because it's kind of extending
02:57beyond your study, but how dangerous could this be for people's health, potentially?
03:06So yeah, like you've mentioned, this is a bit outside of my, my study, but these chemicals
03:12at least four of these chemicals, which we included are being regulated.
03:17For example, the European Union's EPSA, the Food Safety Authority has recommended a weekly
03:25intakes of these chemicals because of their potential health effects.
03:29They can, for example, lower our immune system response after vaccination.
03:35So these are chemicals we need to investigate further and be aware of.
03:40And after reading stories about your report, it would be natural for people to think, okay,
03:46well, I'm going to start looking at the products I'm using to see what they include.
03:53Is it easy for people to avoid products with PFAS if they look through label information?
04:00Are they included in labels?
04:03They should be labeled.
04:04Yes, they should be included in the labels.
04:07There are even already some brands that advertise themselves as being completely PFAS free.
04:14So if you, you should be able to trust that they, they are, you would need to read through
04:19those labels.
04:20But if, if they're, they are adding PFAS, it should be labeled.
04:24Yes.
04:25Yeah.
04:26And do you, do you make yourself, do you look through those labels yourself?
04:32I have started to, yes.
04:34I look through the labels more now.
04:37I might start doing that too.
04:39Okay.
04:40Odney Ragnus dot art.
04:41Thanks so much for talking to us from Birmingham.