6 ms·

forever chemicals had one job

• dylan604 3y ago
  to kill everything? all of the other things were just happy accidents
  • RIMMRAMMBUS 3y ago
    AI and non-living tissue will make the problem "supposedly" go away... :D
• shagie 3y ago
  To be non-interacting with anything... and that makes them rather foreverish. The problem is that the structure of the PFAS (a fluorocarbon chain with an OH at the end) looks a LOT like a hydrocarbon chain with an OH on the end... that's a saturated fatty acid which is crucial for body metabolism. Compare the structure of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myristic_acid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myristic_acid and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_substances https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_subst... This allows the body to accidentally substitute a PFAS (which does nothing) for a fatty acid (which does something - and often important things). https://www.vox.com/2022/8/25/23318667/pfas-forever-chemicals-safety-drinking-water https://www.vox.com/2022/8/25/23318667/pfas-forever-chemical... So yes, it had one job - and it did that job well. It also looks like something that has another job... and does that job really poorly when substituted.