Ruairi Brannigan, Assistant Professor from DCU’s School of Chemical Sciences joined Emmet Oliver to understand why some chemicals are affecting men and women differently.
A new study in Frontiers in Aging suggests so-called ‘forever chemicals,’ or PFAS, may be linked to faster biological aging in men aged 50 to 65.
Ruairi Brannigan, Assistant Professor from DCU’s School of Chemical Sciences told Newstalk Sunday host Emmet Oliver that PFASs, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are omnipresent and that not much could be done to limit exposure to them.
“The only thing that you probably would want to do is to switch from a PFAS containing frying pan to maybe a cast iron or a stainless steel,” he said.
“Our water systems contain quite a lot of PFAS, but we don't have the infrastructure in place to remove these. Not in Ireland or across Europe.
“We didn't really think that there would be much of a difference [in how men and women react to it], but it seems that bodily functions that are typical to females, such as menstruation and breastfeeding actually help expel PFAS.
“Obviously men usually don't have these bodily functions. So it can lower the amount of PFAS in the blood serum of women.”
PFAS are a large family of chemicals, about 15 '000, with molecules that are man-made, made up mainly of carbon, but with a lot of fluorine attached to them. So this fluorine carbon bond is the reason why they're known as forever chemicals and can't be degraded at all.
Vitamin E acetate sample. Picture by: Hans Pennink“They're used in lots of industries, everything from nonstick pans to stain and water-resistant clothing,” Dr Brannigan reminded.
“They're heavily used in the pharma industry, in the computer industry as well. So unfortunately, they're kind of everywhere”
“There's not much we can do in the way of limiting exposure to them. The only thing that you probably would want to do is to switch from a PFAS containing frying pan to maybe a cast iron or a stainless steel”.
He added that our water systems contain quite a lot of PFAS, but we don't have the infrastructure in place to remove these yet.
A chef cooks in a restaurant kitchen. Picture by: FreeProd.Asked how to safeguard against an accumulation of PFASs, Dr Ruairi Brannigan, Assistant Professor from DCU’s School of Chemical Sciences said: “There's a lot of work being done, but none of these systems have been applied industrially.”
“We do need to accelerate the implementation of these types of limiting factors. When it comes to manufacturing,pharmaceutics and vaccines, things like this, and if we were to implement a PFAS regulation to say there's no PFAS allowed and we would be in very deep water.
“They are separate from microplastics that are a bit more sizable. You can see them under a microscope, whereas PFAS are individual molecules that we're talking about. So they're a lot more pervasive, a lot harder to capture, and they can circulate through the body a lot easier.”
As of January this year, all EU states have been mandated to test for 20 PFAS. But 10 to 15 '000 of these chemicals remain. Despite this Dr Brannigan said it was a good start.
Dr Brananigan advised a few tips to reduce the amount of PFAS consumers might be interacting: “If you can move away from using Teflon based frying pans or Teflon based cookware at all and kind of move towards the stainless steel or the cast iron are probably the way to go to somewhat limit your exposure.
“And now you do obviously have to spend more time cleaning your pans. But I think it might be a worthwhile endeavour”.
Main Image: Water flows in a Frankfurt front garden from a garden hose. Picture by: Frank Rumpenhorst.
