Bioaccumulative perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) — toxic compounds used in a large variety of different commercial and industrial products over the past 60 or so years — are crossing the blood brain barrier of the polar bears living in East Greenland, new research has found.

PerFluoroAlkyl Substances (PFASs) are ubiquitous throughout much of the world now thanks to their wide scale application/use over the last half-century and their high-resistance to degradation — too bad then that they are so toxic… as a growing body of research on the compounds is now showing.

Applications have included “water and oil repellent coatings, e.g. for textiles, paper products, carpets and food packaging, pharmaceuticals and surfactants in cleaning products and fire-fighting foams. PFASs are highly resistant to chemical, thermal and biological degradation.”

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