PFAS are not radioactive (as far as I know). Then how can it cause DNA damage and thus cancer? Why can’t it ‘safely’ accumulate in our tissues?
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Radiation isn’t the only thing that can damage DNA. PFAs interact with it chemically and that damages it too.
It is not only ionising radiation which change the DNA and cause cancer. Regular cell division will introduce flaws in the genes which could cause cancer. So the more cell division you have the more likely you are to get cancer. We do not quite know exactly how PFAS cause cancer. But there are a number of dusts such as asbestos and silica which is sharp enough to puncture the cells in the lungs requiring the neighbouring cells to divide to replace the dead ones, and sometimes this process of cell division does not stop and you get lung cancer. Similarly there are viruses like HPV which also kill cells triggering cell division which again can cause cancer. It is possible that PFAS works in a similar way.
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