From construction to skiing, PFAS are an important, but understudied, source of on-the-job chemical exposure.
Grace van Deelen for the Environmental Health News
Working
occasionally in smaller shops with poor ventilation, he breathed in fumes
released by the waxes. “The backroom is pretty cramped,” Arlein told EHN. “In
the winter, you don't want to have the door open because it's freezing. The
ventilation is not great.”
When
he learned what ski wax was made of, though, he re-thought his career path. “It
was kind of an ‘aha’ moment,” he said.
Most
ski wax is a petroleum product filled with chemicals that can be harmful to
human health. Some high-end wax can contain PFAS–a type of petroleum derivative
added to make skis glide faster. PFAS, which stands for per- and
poly-fluoroalkyl substances, are toxic chemicals linked to health
problems such as certain types of cancer, reproductive issues, and birth
defects.
“There
was definitely a concern about personal health, for myself and my co-workers,”
said Arlein. In response, he began a new venture to create a plant-based,
non-toxic ski wax, called mountainFLOW.
Before
starting his company, Arlein was one of the many workers across the country
exposed to PFAS through their jobs. While PFAS exposure has been a concern in
industries like firefighting and chemical manufacturing, there is mounting
evidence that workers in other industries–including the auto industry,
construction industry, and cleaning industry–are also exposed to the chemicals,
sometimes without their knowledge. And workplace regulations may be inadequate
for protecting workers.
“We
need to know how much of our worker population is exposed to these,” Leena
Nylander-French, the director of the NC Occupational Safety and Health
Education and Research Center at the University of North Carolina, told EHN.
“Can these exposures be prevented?”
PFAS in the ski industry
Arlein’s
concerns are backed up by science, such as a 2010 paper that tested the blood levels
of PFAS in professional ski waxers in Norway. The study found that professional
ski waxers had up to 25 times as much PFAS in their blood as people in the
general population. The median concentration of PFAS in the waxers’ blood was
also 10 times higher than the “tolerable weekly intake” of PFAS set
by the European Food Safety Authority.
Line
Småstuen Haug, an author on the study and a senior scientist at the Norwegian
Institute of Public Health, said waxers they studied reported bouts of “Teflon
fever” when they had been waxing a lot of skis. Teflon is a brand name of a
chemical coating that contains PFAS that is sometimes used in ski waxes and
other consumer products, such as non-stick cookware.
“This
is a usage which I think is possible and important to get rid of,” she told
EHN. “It creates a lot of exposure that is definitely unnecessary.”
The
ski industry has been trying to get rid of PFAS-containing waxes: In 2020, the
International Ski Federation, an international governing body for ski
racing, banned PFAS waxes in
professional races.
The
ban, however, left U.S. ski shops with a surplus of PFAS-containing waxes that
are still in use today because shops aren’t sure how to get rid of them. “It is
being used recreationally because people are sitting on all of this inventory,”
said Arlein. “It's too expensive to throw out.”
According
to Arlein, the level of exposure depends on the type of ski resort, the
ventilation in place, and whether personal protective equipment is worn. Larger
resorts, for example, are more likely to have higher-end ventilation systems in
their ski shops. With PFAS-containing waxes, said Arlein, workers are usually
required to wear respirators. “I can’t say how many people actually follow
that,” he said. “I know it’s not everybody.”
Arlein’s
company, mountainFLOW, is developing a buy-back program to get the
PFAS-containing waxes out of ski shops.
Four
of the 13 ski resorts contacted for this article stated they had phased out the
use of PFAS-containing waxes, or had never used the waxes in their ski shops.
The other nine resorts did not respond to requests for comment.
Though
professional ski shops at these large resorts no longer use waxes that contain
PFAS, their health effects can still linger in the bodies of workers, as shown
by a 2017 paper that
studied occupational exposure to PFAS in upstate New York. The study, which
observed 154 people who had spent years working in an industrial area of the
state, found that those exposed to PFAS chemicals in the workplace had elevated
blood levels of PFAS for a median of 28 years after they had been exposed.
“These
chemicals are persistent,” Kurunthachalam Kannan, an author on the study and a
professor at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, told EHN. “If
you have higher exposures, higher levels in your body, it takes a longer time
to clear.”
PFAS in the
transportation industry
PFAS are also widely used in the transportation industry, according to a paper from NYU researchers that found PFAS in 18 of 18 automotive lubricants tested. The highest levels of PFAS were found in a brand of hydraulic fluid marketed for use in vehicles, boats, elevators, and construction equipment. PFAS are also typical components in fuel lines, brake lines, valves, and batteries in cars.
Kannan,
who is also an author on the automotive study, said that the levels of PFAS in
these substances probably put workers who are handling these oils and
lubricants daily, like auto mechanics, at risk of exposure and possible health
effects.
Kannan
is also concerned about airport workers who spray de-icing fluids, which
contain PFAS, on planes. These workers, he said, are not always wearing
personal protective gear.
In
a fact sheet about
use of PFAS in the automotive industry, chemical company Chemours, which
produces automotive lubricants for a wide variety of applications, wrote that
PFAS chemicals used in the industry are “critical technologies with no viable
alternatives,” and that they “do not pose a significant risk to human health or
the environment when used for their intended purposes.”
Chemours
was spun off from chemical company DuPont–the company responsible for
widespread pollution of North Carolina’s Cape Fear River with the PFAS
chemical GenX–in 2015.
Julie
Massaro, the executive director for the Automotive Service Association, a trade
association for repair shop workers and owners, said that the ASA was not aware
of PFAS as an occupational hazard in the auto industry. However, she said, the
ASA is “very supportive of protecting the workers and technicians working on
the cars.”
PFAS in
construction
The construction industry uses PFAS in roofing coatings, certain paints, some types of flooring materials, sealants, adhesives, and even glass fixtures. According to a report from the Green Science Policy Institute, these products may give building construction workers and those working on home improvement projects elevated exposures.
PFAS
chemicals used in these industries and in consumer products eventually make
their way to waste streams and can accumulate in soil. The existence of PFAS in
soils can pose a risk to construction workers, especially those involved in
tunneling or digging projects, according to a 2022 paper out of Swinburne University
of Technology in Australia.
Construction
workers involved in demolition products are also at risk of PFAS exposure
through dust inhalation. Most PFAS in construction materials are chemically
inert, said Charley Stevenson, founder of green building service
MateriallyBetter. However, the products that contain the chemicals can degrade
and accumulate in dust.
Scott
Rayburn, a professor of civil and construction engineering and an author on the
paper, said that PFAS are rarely discussed by the construction industry.
Neither North America’s Building Trades Unions nor the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers, and Allied Workers responded to multiple requests for comment.
Widespread PFAS
use
PFAS
pose a risk to workers in other industries as
well. For example, PFAS are added to cleaning products used by professional
cleaners and custodians–certain floor waxes or stain-resistant carpet cleaning
agents contain PFAS. “Anybody who works in those places will get a full dose
because the [cleaning agents] wear off and have to be reapplied,” Ranier
Lohmann, a professor of environmental chemistry at the University of Rhode
Island, told EHN.
Furniture
manufacturers also sometimes add PFAS to products to make them stain-resistant,
putting workers at risk, said Stevenson.
Nylander-French
is also worried about paper manufacturing. PFAS are used in paper manufacturing
in different waterproof coatings; for example, butcher paper used to wrap meat.
The environmental wellness blog and community Mamavationtested various paper products last
year and found low but detectable levels of fluorine, a PFAS indicator, in certain
brands of parchment paper.
Nylander-French
said that regulating PFAS use on the occupational side can greatly reduce its
prevalence in the environment. “The workers are always exposed first,” she
said. “It’s easier to contain the problem when it’s still in containable form
than when it’s out in the public.
The
federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration does not have specific
PFAS regulations. However, employers using PFAS in occupational settings are
required to follow general regulations for hazardous chemicals under the Hazard
Communication Standard. The standard states that all hazardous
chemicals must be accompanied by an informational safety sheet, and that all
employers with hazardous chemicals in the workplace must train employees on
proper use of the chemicals.
Obstacles
to research
Nylander-French
said research into occupational exposure is difficult because researchers often
lack access to workers.
She
is particularly interested in personal protective equipment. Many workers in
the industries mentioned in this article wear personal protective equipment,
like respirators, when they’re on the job. However, Nylander-French added,
little is known about how PFAS actually enter the human body, and whether
personal protective equipment like respirators are actually sufficient to
protect people.
“There
are so many unknowns,” she said. “And I'm not sure that industry itself
understands.”
Want
to know more about PFAS? Check out our comprehensive guide.
