Chapter 11: The supporting cast · Part 7: Stain and water repellents
PFAS ("forever chemicals")
- Made from a hazardous chemical
- Contaminant risk
The worst fact: in November 2023 the WHO's cancer agency classed PFOA as "carcinogenic to humans", its top category. It found sufficient evidence in animals, strong evidence of how it acts in exposed people, and limited evidence in people for kidney and testicular cancer. It classed PFOS as "possibly carcinogenic to humans".
Why brands use it: PFAS make products resist heat, stains, grease and water. In Australian cleaning products, the highest-volume import reports (1,001 to 10,000 kg each, over two years) were mostly polymers for cleaning prescription glasses. PTFE, the PFAS imported most often, goes into lubricants, paints and non-stick cookware.
Take care if: you're pregnant. Australia classes PFOA and PFOS as "May damage the unborn child.", and PFOS also as "May cause harm to breast-fed children." You live near a site where PFAS were released in large amounts: the Australian Centre for Disease Control says people there may have higher PFAS levels in their body. You spray fabric or furniture protector: in one reported case in a Dutch wood workshop, a fluorinated waterproofing product was spray-gunned onto furniture; 10 workers got breathing symptoms, and one, who later smoked cigarettes in the workshop, was hospitalised. Use it in fresh air and don't smoke nearby.
Comes from: PTFE is made by polymerising tetrafluoroethylene. Australia classes tetrafluoroethylene as "May cause cancer; May cause cancer by inhalation". That doesn't mean it's in the product, but it's not a great starting point for something you clean with.
Myth check: "Forever means it never leaves your body": not quite. After a Swedish town's contaminated water was replaced, levels in residents' blood halved on average every 2.7 years for PFOA, 3.4 years for PFOS and 5.3 years for PFHxS. "Forever" is mainly about the environment: the carbon-fluorine bond is very strong, PFAS don't break down easily there, and they tend to build up over time in living things.
Contaminants: PFOA (Australia: "Suspected of causing cancer"). It was a processing aid in making PTFE, and a 2005 US FDA study found PTFE cookware held residual PFOA in the low µg/kg range. Australian importers reported PFOA as an impurity in finished fabrics, lubricants, firefighting foams and inks. Many PFAS also break down into trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), which Australia's regulator proposes to assess first. They're unlikely in a well-made product, but it's a factor you can't see on the label.
Fair to say: the Australian Centre for Disease Control says there is "limited evidence of human disease or other clinically significant harm" from PFAS, and the cancer studies are typically from places where PFAS were made, with higher exposure than in Australia. Since 1 July 2025, Australian law has banned the import, export, manufacture and use of PFOS, PFOA and PFHxS, except as unintentional traces (up to 0.025 mg/kg of each), for research, and in articles already in use before that date. No manufacture of PFAS for industrial use was reported here from September 2023 to August 2025. In South East Queensland blood samples, average PFOS and PFOA in adults fell 56% from 2002/03 to 2010/11. Of 28 reports of PFAS imported for cleaning and furniture care products, 19 were for industry only. Drinking water has been estimated at about 2–3% of PFOS and PFOA exposure where contamination is low (up to 90% is believed to come from other sources, such as food and household products), and the 2025 health-based guideline values are PFOS 8 ng/L, PFHxS 30 ng/L, PFOA 200 ng/L and PFBS 1,000 ng/L. The government survey didn't require reports on finished goods such as pans and clothing, so it can't tell you what's in them.
Correct as of November 2026. What the badges mean
Sources
- Industrial Chemicals Environmental Management (Register) Instrument 2022, Schedule 7 (PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS), F2022L01658, Compilation No. 5 (19 June 2026); Amendment (2023 Measures No. 1) Instrument 2023, F2023L01689.
- AICIS. Draft evaluation statement EVA00204: Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), introduction and use in Australia (21 October 2026, draft, open for comment to 2 December 2026).
- Australian Centre for Disease Control. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) (updated 19 December 2025).
- NHMRC. PFAS review and Australian Drinking Water Guidelines health-based guideline values (June 2025).
- Safe Work Australia. Hazardous Chemical Information System (HCIS): perfluorooctanoic acid, perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, tetrafluoroethylene.
- Australian Government. Poisons Standard October 2026 (SUSMP), F2026L01327 (checked for PFAS entries).
- IARC. Monographs volume 135: Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) (news release, 1 December 2023).
- Washington State Department of Ecology. Safer Products for Washington draft regulatory determinations (5 November 2026).
- HSDB (US National Library of Medicine), via PubChem: tetrafluoroethylene, uses and manufacture.
- Toms LM et al. Decline in perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoate serum concentrations in an Australian population from 2002 to 2011. Environ Int 2014;71:74-80.
- Li Y et al. Half-lives of PFOS, PFHxS and PFOA after end of exposure to contaminated drinking water. Occup Environ Med 2018;75:46-51.
- Begley TH et al. Perfluorochemicals: potential sources of and migration from food packaging. Food Addit Contam 2005;22:1023-31.
- Scheepers PTJ et al. Pulmonary injury associated with spray of a water-based nano-sized waterproofing product: a case study. J Occup Med Toxicol 2017;12:33.
The full source list is at the end of Chapter 11.