Sunscreen. Lipstick. Hand sanitiser. 

These are just some of the everyday items that could be delivering ‘Forever Chemicals’ into our bodies.

That’s according to a first-of-its-kind study that upends what we thought we knew about PFAs. 

Until now, it was believed the chemicals could not breach the skin, but researchers have found that exposure to anything from lipstick to water-repelling clothing can cause the stuff to enter the bloodstream.

PFAs are known as ‘Forever Chemicals’ because they can take thousands of years to break down and have been found to accumulate in the human body. 

They’re found in air, water, and soil, and have been mass-produced since the 1940s – used in food packaging, cookware, clothing, carpet, firefighting foam, and pretty much everything we come into contact with every day.

The health effects of forever chemicals can be devastating – linked to liver and thyroid problems, breastfeeding disruption, infertility, and cancer.

So as more and more forever, chemicals find a forever home in our bodies, what can we do to protect ourselves?

Investigative journalist Dan Ashby is part of the team behind the new BBC podcast Buried: The Last Witness, which looks at the impact of Forever Chemicals in the environment.

Dan told The Project that the finding that Forever Chemicals can be absorbed through the skin is a “depressing moment”. 

“Up until this point, we knew we were getting them through water, food and environment, but there was this hope that we might not be absorbing them through make-up, for instance,” he said.  

“This study confirms that people are. And there's something darkly ironic about this, that you're putting products on to your skin to look better but putting toxic chemicals into your bloodstream.”

Dan went on to say it was “scary” to think of “something invisible and tiny getting inside me that I could do nothing about that could affect our children and children's children.”

For people wanting to avoid PFAs, Dan recommended checking label and thinking about what you eat. 

“If you want to take personal action, you can look out for a PFAs-free logo on certain make-up. With certain forever chemicals, you could consider your diet,” he said. 

“We know that forever chemicals tend to build up in apex predators, so there are going to be more PFAS and PCBs in fish and meat. That being said, they are also in vegetables.”

Dan said that at the end of the day, “big international institutions and regulation and bans are the only real way to protect consumers.”