Many soft contact lenses in US made up of PFAS, research suggests

[willtemperley]

This is a scare story - the original "research" The Guardian have linked to is an article by Mamavation which is the blog of Leah Segedie who "has a Masters degree from the University of Southern California in Communication Management".

Leah found "Indications of PFAS", organic Fluorine, which may or may not be PFAS. Whilst she may not be wrong, as a wearer of contact lenses myself I would like to know the truth.

[willtemperley]

By the way, Leah (@bookieboo on twitter) is an affiliate marketer of many non-toxic products.

[ars]

"extremely high levels of organic fluorine, a marker of ‘forever chemicals’"

I hate this kind of garbage research.

Florine can be used in lots of things, without actually checking there is absolutely no way they can claim it's PFAS.

[bhaney]

So is there a health concern with having PFAS in contact with your eyes, or is this an environmental issue because they don't degrade? It sounds like there's something here meant to get upset about, but I don't know what it's supposed to be.

[enslavedrobot]

Many PFAS compounds are toxic at parts per trillion levels. As a chemist I can tell you that it's a big deal, but there is also no way you can avoid exposure.

The fact that 3M is exiting their 1.3 billion fluorinated molecule business of their own accord, should give you a flavour of the shitstorm of litigation that will result when the full implications of PFAS contamination are understood more broadly.

https://news.3m.com/2022-12-20-3M-to-Exit-PFAS-Manufacturing...

[gilgoomesh]

The research is ongoing and unclear. The primary reason people are concerned is that the half-life of PFAS in the human body is between 2 and 9 years – so if you're exposed, you're really exposed.

There's been a range of studies that have shown possible links with a number of different diseases which is concerning only because the effects of PFAS had been largely unstudied until the last 15 years. But that this point, there are few clear problems from PFAS.

https://www.pfas.gov.au/about-pfas/affects

[repeekad]

I don’t think anyone is trying to make anyone upset, it’s just research on how prevalent PFAS are. At a minimum, the hundreds of contact lenses I’ve thrown away in my life will almost never break down fully in a landfill, but I’m sure they’re far from the worst things we’ve put in there…

[pengaru]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PFAS#Human_health_concerns_ass...

[voz_]

PFAS is to my generation as leaded gasoline is to the prior generation(s), and asbestos to the ones before them, and so forth from when the first chimneys were put up to spew toxic sludge into our air and rivers at the start of the industrial revolution. There is something so sad, so unworkable, and so deeply troubling about how this kind of thing keeps happening.

[fsckboy]

we used to live malnourished, with stunted growth, women dying in childbirth to bring 8 kids into the world half of whom would die in childhood, with large numbers of men dying before they couldn't afford reading glasses they would need. (my gf was 1 of 5 surviving from 10 born, with horsedrawn transportation and starvation)

all that industrialization brought us to much healthier longer lives filled with amenities undreamed of 100 years ago, including corrective vision.

now as a society we uncover problems, we fix them. We're doing pretty well.

[voldacar]

Asbestos shouldn't be compared to leaded gasoline imo. It's quite safe and inert if you don't physically disturb it.

[milsorgen]

I think we're gonna have several asbestos/lead moments in our lifetimes. PFAS, micro plastics, endocrine disruption, I'd also wager marijuana is likely to have its own big tobacco moment eventually, I've heard fruits and vegetables have slowly been losing nutrient density over generations but I have not looked into that yet. There's more nebulous things like the impact of AI or the way we now communicate (or don't communicate in many cases)... We have a lot of problems or potential problems that are going to be relatively subtle and or persistent over years and decades and I don't feel we are really taking them as seriously as we should. One thing that really worries me is how many of these various things may interact, we see this in pharmaceuticals where it's very hard if not impossible to rigorously test all the potential interactions. We have introduced a tremendous amount of changes to our lives in increasingly short time frames.

[contravariant]

I think you can go back quite a bit further. Heck most of humanities progress was spent trying to figure out how to stay in a single place without turning it incapable of supporting human life within a few months.

[foobiekr]

They were really pretty close. Leaded gas was banned for new model cars in 1985 but didn't stop being used until 1996 - the year of XML! - and asbestos was and is everywhere, the gift that keeps on giving. Popcorn ceiling in a house built in 1980 CA? Probably full of asbestos because grandfathered in. And so on.

Just kind of amazing.

[thatfrenchguy]

Lead poisoning came before asbestos fwiw

[29athrowaway]

DDT was probably worse than all.

[spitfire]

How large are PFAS particles? Because the Bowman's layer found just under the epithelium should stop most particles from reaching the stroma. The Bowman's layer is particularly frustrating for medicinal delivery - it stops most particles from reaching stroma/endothelium. This makes corneal burn recovery quite difficult.

So if PFAS has some mechanism to pass through the Bowman's layer, it could be useful for medicine delivery and healing corneal wounds.

[mensetmanusman]

About 30% of pharmaceuticals being developed are PFAS, so the value for medicine is already quite understood.

[fwlr]

The crucial part of this research that is omitted is that the type of PFAS that contact lenses contain are “fluoropolymers”, a subcategory of PFAS that is considered to be less dangerous, and is not the subject of most PFAS regulation. Still potentially harmful, of course, I don’t claim to be an expert on this stuff, but it’s an important point that was left out of the article.

[mensetmanusman]

This nuance will never reach public consciousness. Decisions will be made that are a net negative for global health, as the west will scare manufacturing of such materials to unregulated markets.

[eulgro]

The full article is at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/09/contact-...

[dang]

Thanks! We've changed to that from https://superfund.ncsu.edu/news/3831/.

[mensetmanusman]

Cipro, Prozac, and Flonase are PFAS.

The media has successfully stirred up fear on an entire class of compounds that have half-lives ranging over many orders of magnitude.

[pensatoio]

Well then. LASIK it is.

[PostOnce]

The other commenters pointed out that glasses are an option, but I feel like the real thing that is missed in lasik discussions is risk -- there is no risk of ruining your eyes by wearing glasses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LASIK#Risks

[m463]

The best vision you can get is your real eyes plus contact lenses.

Vision surgery will correct the central portion of your eyes, and it won't last your lifetime.

After vision surgery, your prescription can continue to change, however it is difficult to correct the vision with contact lenses at that point because your eye has a "plateau" shape, which contacts aren't really designed for.

Also, if there is astigmatism, it's hard to correct it at low diopters of correction.

[DiabloD3]

You know glasses exist, right?

[garyfirestorm]

what happened to glasses?

[zachkatz]

Any actionable advice here? Are there any safer contact lens brands?

[enono]

I appreciate that I can always trust HN to tear bullshit articles to shred. Thanks y’all

[neurobama]

Guess I'll stick with spectacles. Safe, inert, strong, transparent, recyclable, cheap, and abundant... glass is truly a Bronze Age wonder material!

[codersfocus]

If I want to sell lemonade, tea or coffee by the road, I need to apply for 5 different documents of some kind or another in my city.

If I want to manufacture (or moreso, import) things with all kinds of unknown, untested chemicals, I am free to do as I wish with no supervision.

[hammyhavoc]

Getting a medical device certified is much more difficult than selling beverages from a food cart.

People used to drink radium water for health benefits and think smoking wasn't a problem. Good science is reevaluating based on gained knowledge then behaving accordingly. Expect gained knowledge to lead to more strict regulation and certification standards.

[superchroma]

Well, arguably, we understand lemonade well so we can regulate the sale of it. The same can't be said for PFAS. People move slow, and regulatory legislation, particularly under conservative rule, desperately so.