As someone who has waxed with HF wax several dozen times in the past (collegiate nordic ski racer) with no face mask and mediocre room ventilation, how worried should I be about long-term side effects?
The average US citizen has a large load of PFAS in their blood[1] from clothing, carpet, water and other sources. The levels have dropped a great deal in the last 20 years but it's unlikely you've increased your levels much beyond what you already had from other sources.
The blood serum levels reported by CDC are staggering. As an example, I have a well and it's in a contamination plume of PFOS and PFOA. The EPA certified laboratory measured level two years ago was 11 ppt (parts per trillion.) The CDC measured 2.1 ug/L of PFOA (only) in the blood of over 2000 people in 2014. That's 2,100,000 ppt; 5 orders of magnitude higher than my 'contaminated' water.
> In 2018 a draft report from an office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the risk level for exposure to the chemicals should be up to 10 times lower than the 70 PPT threshold the EPA recommends. The White House and the EPA had tried to stop the report from being published.
If it makes you feel any better, we're all in the same boat with you. Like really, all of us. We're all swimining in the stuff. Almost all water-repellent outdoor clothing, and all clothing, furniture, and carpeting that's marketed as "stain repellent" is coated with PFAS's. Those of us grew up in the 70's, 80's, or 90's crawled, played and slept on rugs and carpets that were coated with the original formula of ScotchGard, which was pretty much straight PFOS.
