When I hear talking about forever chemicals, they are usually described as “chemicals are not affected by naturally occurring reactions, and that accumulate in the bodies of living beings”. By accumulating, they cause all sorts of health issues.
What I don’t understand is how they cause these health issues. If these chemicals do not participate in regular reactions, how do they cause issues?
I am not claiming that the research in the subject is wrong, I am missing the link between “these things don’t react with anything” and “these things still cause all sorts of health problems”.
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I believe it is due to the fact that they replace the spot of other chemicals but , since they are now stable they do not interact with the environment as expected, since they are different chemicals.
Much like replacing a sprocket with a cilinder with no teeth, so it can no longer engage to those around it.
The ones I read the most about are not the final products (Teflon) but the surfactants used to help make the Teflon. For ELI5 purposes, a surfactant acts like a “soap”. It’s not really reacting but it’s changing the behavior of things near membranes.
Initial testing in the 1940s showed no *acute* toxicity but those were at low levels. Because your body can’t digest or metabolize it then the substances will just keep building up in your body over time. Too much of a foreign substance in your body will start to have an effect eventually, if only because it “gets in the way”. So, the long term effects have not been good. It eventually messes with your hormones. And clean up is really hard because the molecules are almost designed not to be cleaned up.
This might have been ELI4, maybe someone can chime in with more details.
The human body (as well as any other organism) is a biochemical engine that uses enzymes to facilitate and vastly increase the speed of thousands of various reactions, and other molecules to control how and when these reactions go. Some of the so-called “forever chemicals” can be similar in structure to these molecules and thus interfere with the functioning of the body.
The human body (as well as any other organism) is a biochemical engine that uses enzymes to facilitate and vastly increase the speed of thousands of various reactions, and other molecules to control how and when these reactions go. Some of the so-called “forever chemicals” can be similar in structure to these molecules and thus interfere with the functioning of the body.
The human body (as well as any other organism) is a biochemical engine that uses enzymes to facilitate and vastly increase the speed of thousands of various reactions, and other molecules to control how and when these reactions go. Some of the so-called “forever chemicals” can be similar in structure to these molecules and thus interfere with the functioning of the body.
I believe it is due to the fact that they replace the spot of other chemicals but , since they are now stable they do not interact with the environment as expected, since they are different chemicals.
Much like replacing a sprocket with a cilinder with no teeth, so it can no longer engage to those around it.
Most of the time, we measure a health effect but we don’t really know why. But a big reason is probably how PFAS partitions, or what substances it groups with in the body. Most substances group with water or fats. PFAS is weird because it groups with proteins. Since proteins are what perform most of our body’s chemical reactions, PFAS can have an effect by changing how well these proteins work. That might show up as changes in which of our genes are active, or it might affect the proteins that do other reactions more directly, like those which make fatty acids, or those which break down toxins in the liver. We don’t have a ton of direct evidence that I know of how these effects happen. But there are studies that try to model how PFAS interacts with certain proteins (“molecular docking” studies) to see where and how strong PFAS sticks to them.
I believe it is due to the fact that they replace the spot of other chemicals but , since they are now stable they do not interact with the environment as expected, since they are different chemicals.
Much like replacing a sprocket with a cilinder with no teeth, so it can no longer engage to those around it.
Most of the time, we measure a health effect but we don’t really know why. But a big reason is probably how PFAS partitions, or what substances it groups with in the body. Most substances group with water or fats. PFAS is weird because it groups with proteins. Since proteins are what perform most of our body’s chemical reactions, PFAS can have an effect by changing how well these proteins work. That might show up as changes in which of our genes are active, or it might affect the proteins that do other reactions more directly, like those which make fatty acids, or those which break down toxins in the liver. We don’t have a ton of direct evidence that I know of how these effects happen. But there are studies that try to model how PFAS interacts with certain proteins (“molecular docking” studies) to see where and how strong PFAS sticks to them.
So your body is broadly controlled by hormones. The hormone is a specific shape like a key, and it falls into specific shaped receivers in your body. When it does that, the signal is acted on.
Plastics as they break down can be these same shapes so they accidentally fit into the receiver slots for the hormones. Making your body do things it shouldn’t.
This is one serious way they effect us. An example is a plastic called BPA which just so happens to be the same shape as estrogen, so children of either gender drinking from cups made of it might grow boobs, or go into puberty at a young age
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