PFAS are everywhere, from rivers to the blood of ministers

You just have to look and find them. The list of places—even Antarctica is affected—and species contaminated by PFAS, which already includes scorpions, pandas, plankton, oysters, and otters , among others, continues to grow. In recent months alone, they have been discovered in sewage sludge in Japan, reports Japan Today , or in Sydney's tap water at levels far higher than expected, according to an investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald .

These perennial pollutants are also found in the eggs of chickens that peck in Dutch gardens or in the blubber of killer whales. This latest discovery, which dates back to last August, challenges “the hypothesis that PFAS bind primarily to proteins and accumulate in the liver or blood,” reports Oceanographic magazine . Enough to look for—and find—PFAS elsewhere.

On the human side, the contamination appears to be widespread. Like chickens that feed on earthworms contaminated by soil, “humans ingest PFAS, particularly through soil, crop, and water pollution,” De Volkskrant analyzes . In the Netherlands, a study of a representative sample of nearly 1,500 people concluded