Does Toilet Paper Have PFAS? A 2026 Guide to Forever Chemicals

Most people call them forever chemicals, which is not marketing by the way. It is chemistry. PFAS are a class of more than 14,000 synthetic compounds built around a carbon-fluorine bond so strong that almost nothing in nature can break it. That bond is why PFAS exist in the first place. It repels water, oil, grease, heat, and stains, which is why the chemicals ended up in non-stick pans, raincoats, takeout containers, dental floss, firefighting foam, and yes, some toilet paper.

That same bond is why PFAS do not leave. Not your body. Not the soil. Not the water. Some stick around for thousands of years.

The EPA links PFAS exposure to a long list of health concerns: certain cancers, lower fertility, thyroid disease, immune system suppression (including reduced vaccine effectiveness), developmental delays in kids, and elevated cholesterol. Researchers have detected PFAS in rainwater globally, including in Antarctica and on the Tibetan Plateau, in umbilical cord blood, and in breast milk. They are, at this point, genuinely everywhere.

So when scientists started asking whether PFAS were also in toilet paper, nobody was expecting a no.

The most commonly detected compound was 6:2 fluorotelomer phosphate diester, known as 6:2 diPAP, which was found in every sample and accounted for about 91% of the PFAS detected. 6:2 diPAP is a "precursor," which means it slowly breaks down in the environment into other persistent PFAS compounds like PFHxA.

The researchers then connected the dots to wastewater. They estimated that toilet paper contributes up to 89% of 6:2 diPAP in sewage in France, around 35% in Sweden, and roughly 4% in the U.S. and Canada. Four percent sounds small until you remember the average American uses about 50 pounds of toilet paper per year.

Independent consumer testing by Mamavation, in partnership with Environmental Health News, has been running since 2022 and has been updated multiple times since. They send off-the-shelf toilet paper samples to an EPA-certified lab and test for organic fluorine, which is the recognized chemical marker that PFAS are present.

Context matters here. Mamavation itself notes that at these concentrations, PFAS are almost certainly not being added on purpose. They are drifting in through manufacturing equipment, processing aids, or packaging. This is the contamination problem. A brand can have genuinely good intentions and still ship products with trace forever chemicals because the supply chain it buys into is quietly soaked in them.

This is also why "we do not intentionally add PFAS" statements from paper companies are worth reading carefully. Not adding something and verifying it is not there are two very different things.

Bamboo is not automatically cleaner, by the way. What matters is not just the raw fiber but the entire processing line. Any fiber can pick up PFAS on its way through a factory.

Most PFAS research has focused on ingestion and inhalation, not dermal contact, and the Florida researchers themselves did not evaluate human health risks of using toilet paper containing PFAS.

Jake Thompson, the study's lead author, told The Guardian he was not rushing to change his toilet paper, but flagged the bigger point: "We're identifying another source of PFAS, and it highlights that the chemicals are ubiquitous."

Linda Birnbaum, former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, told Mamavation that PFAS cause effects in nearly every organ system at every life stage, and that because toilet paper rubs against highly vascular tissue, it is reasonable to be concerned about that exposure.

And even setting aside the personal health question, there is an environmental one that is definitely not speculative. Wastewater treatment plants were not designed to remove PFAS. Whatever forever chemicals wash out of our bathrooms end up in sludge spread on farm fields as fertilizer, and in effluent released back into rivers and lakes. So even if wiping with PFAS toilet paper turns out to be a relatively minor personal exposure, flushing it is a meaningful environmental one.

There is no single silver-bullet certification, but here is how we think about it. The more of these boxes a product checks, the more confidence you can have.

We started PACT Outdoors because we were tired of seeing piles of toilet paper behind every bush on every trail. The fix was never "try harder." The fix was better tools. Somewhere along the way, we realized that even the toilet paper we were replacing had its own hidden problem, one you cannot see and cannot feel. Forever chemicals you did not sign up for.

So our wipes were made differently.

PACT Bathroom Wipes are dehydrated, compressed, plant-based wipes made from 100% viscose fiber spunlace nonwoven. Every wipe is made of certified OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 material which explicitly screens for PFAS and PFCs along with other restricted substances. The pulp is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified, which means the fiber is sourced from responsibly managed forests under an audited chain of custody. We are a registered FSC Promotional License holder (yes, that is a real document with real signatures, not a marketing badge we slapped on).

And they actually break down. Our wipes were independently tested by TÜV SÜD against ASTM D6400-19, the international standard for compostable materials. The result: 98% biodegradation in 75 days under controlled composting conditions. That is well above the 90% threshold the standard requires. For comparison, conventional wet wipes are typically built on plastic fibers that do not meaningfully break down at all.

Forever chemicals in toilet paper is a weird, specific problem, but it is really a symptom of a bigger one: the assumption that something designed to touch your body, every day, multiple times a day, for your entire life, is automatically being tested for what is actually in it. Mostly, it is not.

The good news is that individual choices genuinely do add up. Every roll of PFAS-free TP is a roll not going into the wastewater stream. Every OEKO-TEX certified wipe is one more audit, one more test report, one more supply chain that got pressure-tested for forever chemicals. The same mindset that makes someone bury their poop properly on a backpacking trip is the mindset that reads the ingredient label on toilet paper.

If you give people better tools, they will happily use them for the benefit of everyone. That includes us. And we are here to keep making better ones.

The PACT Bathroom Wipes are plant-based & made of OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 certified material. They are made using FSC certified fiber. No PFAS. No fragrance. No dyes. No plastic.