PFAS are widely used with good reason-they can do a lot. PFAS, aka “forever chemicals” are a large group of synthetic chemicals that have been used in consumer products since the 1950s, per the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It’s unknown based on the findings whether other brands also contain PFAS, but Belcher says it’s “certainly possible.” What are PFAS, again? It’s important to note that Acuvue, Alcon, and Coopervision were the only brands tested. Could this cause dry eye and eye allergies? We don’t know.” “At this stage, this is definitely something to think about but there’s not really evidence as to what the harms are just yet. “There’s fluoro in a lot of things and we’re becoming more aware of that,” he says. “We just can’t quantify that concern at this point,” he adds.īavand Youssefzadeh, D.O., an ophthalmologist at Global Lasik and Cateract Institute in Huntington Beach, Calif., agrees. “This is the first study to really point in this direction.”īelcher says that scientists have known “for decades” that fluoropolymers were used in contacts but adds that they’re “not really regulated as far as toxicology assessments.”īelcher, who wears contacts on occasion, says that “there really is a concern” with the findings. “It is absolutely unclear,” says Scott Belcher, Ph.D., a toxicology and environmental health sciences professor at North Carolina State University and scientific adviser on the study. It’s important to point out that this is new information and, with that, there aren’t a lot of answers right now. If you wear contact lenses-and many people do-it’s understandable to have questions and concerns. The researchers found that all of the contacts exceeded 100 parts per million (ppm) of organic fluorine, which is about 50,000 times more than the highest level that’s considered safe in drinking water by the EPA. The study, which was organized by the Mamavation website, which focuses on non-toxic product recommendations, had the contacts tested in a lab that’s certified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to try to determine how much PFAS was in the products. The researchers found that all 18 pairs had various levels of organic fluorine, an indicator of the presence of PFAS. The consumer study analyzed 18 sets of contacts from the popular brands Acuvue, Alcon, and Coopervision for a group of chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS. Experts say there’s a lot we don't know at this point about the potential impact.Īn estimated 45 million Americans wear contact lenses, but new research that connects contacts to cancer-causing chemicals is making plenty of people reconsider their use.All 18 contact lenses tested contacted high levels of PFAS.A new consumer study found that many popular contact lenses have elevated levels of “forever chemicals.”.
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