Why WWII-era Chemicals Are Making You Get a Colonoscopy
Little Bastard Chemicals
Apollo 11. Your nonstick frying pan that makes incredible grilled cheeses. Your dad’s super-hardcore $500 rain jacket. 1 World Trade Center (the new one AND the old one). Spank Me Santa MAC lipstick. The hallway carpet in your favorite Motel 6. The oily pizza box sticking out of your kitchen trash can.
Q: What do these have in common?
A: All are likely sources of PFAS chemicals
Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are basically super-complex molecules that don’t occur in nature and were manufactured for various industrial uses starting about 70 years ago. They break down incredibly slowly, so even though they’re being phased out of most products in most places, they remain abundant in America’s soil, drinking water, and air, and have been found in meaningful levels in the blood of animals (including the ones we eat) and humans. Little bastards indeed.
They’re also linked to about a million serious health issues, including kidney, colon, and testicular cancer, reduced sperm concentration for men, a bunch of background health conditions, and even the effectiveness of some vaccines.
It’s important that we say not all of these links are definitive, the data are mixed and sometimes contradictory. What we do know, however, is that there are no studies suggesting that PFAS are good for us. We might not be absolutely sure how big a risk they are for very specific health challenges, but we know that they are risky, and that quantity matters: more PFAS means higher risk.
The Colorectal Question
The best-established link is between PFAS exposure and cancer. Today, we want to zero in on colorectal cancers (“colon cancer” is often used as a catch-all term, but technically, if the disease starts anywhere in the colon or rectum).
Two PFAS molecules in particular have been identified as risks for colon cancer. Those are perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS). A very interesting study recently looked, not at the general correlation between PFOA and PFOS and colon cancer, but specifically at how those two chemicals, after finding their way into our bodies, might make it easier for cancer cells to spread and multiply.
Their specific concern was metastasis, or the process of new tumorous growths forming in new parts of your body from where the cancer first broke out. The researchers grew colorectal cancer cells in the lab, and then bathed them in PFOA and PFOS. They found a wide collection of worrying signs. The top three, arguably, were:
- The cells got better at migrating across cultured tissue, showing “a tendency to spread and to penetrate membranes.” Plus, when the scientists grew cells and then separated them physically (by scratching across the petri dish surface), adding PFAS made the cancer cells grow back together.
- Once PFAS were added, the cancer cells started producing a bunch of molecules—fatty acids, amino acids, and signaling proteins—that have been solidly linked to metastasis. In other words, they were making all the organic materials they needed to spread within the body.
- Some of those signal proteins were part of a special set that can, in essence, transform cells from one type, “epithelial”—which are great at sticking to membranes—to another, “mesenchymal,” which are great at moving through them.
This is not good news. To quote the lab’s press release, “That could mean that cancers with this mutation may be especially prone to spread after exposure to these chemicals.” In other words, these chemicals might make cancer much more dangerous.
What Was That About Colonoscopies?
This is supposed to be a practical health information site, so we want to shift gears from the intricacies of intercellular signaling to some useful advice.
Possible exposure to PFAS is almost impossibly diverse. Cosmetics, food, buildings, grease-proof and water-resistant materials, and many other everyday items contain them. You can’t reduce your exposure to zero, or eliminate the risks they pose entirely. But there are some important steps you can take to reduce the potential harm.
First up, colonoscopies. Get one. Colorectal cancers are actually some of the easiest to treat using modern methods. But as with other cancers, you need to catch them early, and a colonoscopy is the most effective way of doing that. A visit to the proctologist isn’t the most pleasant of all your routine checkups, but it has tremendous life-saving potential. And as for the colonoscopy procedure itself, you’re asleep, so it’s not even uncomfortable.
Second, there’s the question of reducing your exposure to PFAS. The most straightforward step is to look for products marked as being PFAS-free, something that will become more and more common over the next few years. Another is to avoid nonstick pots and pans, since those magic coatings are especially high in the chemicals in question. The US Cancer Society also recommends avoiding canned clams (really).
This one’s a little more legwork, but it might be worth checking whether you’re near a known site of PFAS contamination, and, if so, calling up your local water utility or using an at-home water test kit.
Finally, there’s food. When in doubt, as always, think local, think fresh, and think unprocessed. Unless you’re buying fish from a pond known to be full of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, the less packaging, transporting, repackaging, displaying, and so forth that your food has undergone, the better
PFAS chemicals have become a fact of life for people most everywhere in the world, and unfortunately we can’t travel back in time 70 years and uninvent them. But you can take some easy steps to minimize your exposure to PFAS and take some equally easy steps to effectively protect yourself from some of the health risks they likely pose.
