These have been called wonder chemicals. They have now evolved into staple stain and grease-proof coatings for a broad array of everyday consumer products, including microwave popcorn bags, carpets and blue jeans.

An average adult is exposed to over 100 unique chemicals in personal-care products every day. These exposures add up.

The cosmetics industry is essentially a self-regulating industry. Companies are making vastly different decisions, and the safety of products vary widely. Some contain products that are safe to eat, others have carcinogens that are linked to birth defects.

Most people would prefer there are no known human carcinogens in what they drink.

Most people would prefer there are no known human carcinogens in what they drink. This is a case where industry agreed to get it out of the products, and all the evidence says they didn't.

The fact that PFOA can cross the placenta from the mother to child is very troubling, given the fact that this is a chemical that is broadly toxic and linked to birth defects in lab animals.