While the FDA over the years has allowed PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) to be used in paper and paperboard food packaging, it certainly makes sense today to eliminate as much PFAS as possible from the environment, because these chemicals (like the ones used in firefighting foams) simply don’t go away—they don’t naturally decompose—hence they’ve become known as the “forever chemicals.”
It would be one thing if these chemicals were benign, but new evidence is showing them to be potentially carcinogenic, and though FDA has stated that in packaging uses, the PFAS chemicals don’t likely migrate into the food, nevertheless, the disposal of packaging containing these substances is problematic as they live forever in our soils and waters. No matter how a human may ingest PFAS, the result is not good as these chemicals reside in our bodies “forever.” They are not excreted.