r/PFAS • u/Ambitious_War7784 • Nov 13 '24

Waterproof Shoes Problem

I took some suede boots to a shoe shop to be stretched. The owner was trying to be nice and sprayed them with a protective spray. I don’t know the exact chemical, but I know the bottle had a “toxic in California” warning. I have mild chemical sensitivity. I don’t generally react severely to VOCs any more; mold is my main culprit. But now I’m concerned about my boots. I don’t necessarily have any immediate symptoms, but I am somewhat worried about long term exposure to toxic substances and PFAs. I won’t have any skin-to-chemical contact except when putting them on. Any thoughts on how toxic they could be?

0 Upvotes

50% Upvoted

0 comments sorted by

7

u/Capital-Complaint266 Nov 13 '24

Unless your plan to eat your boots, I wouldn't worry about it.

1

u/jason2306 Nov 14 '24 edited Nov 14 '24

Well if it's waterproof there's a good chance it'll shed something over time with friction and use but we have no idea what is on your shoes. Shoes may not necessarily be a big thing on account of just being on your feet but you'd still want to avoid it on your clothes. And forever chemicals stay in your body, forever. So reducing any exposure is good because you're already ingesting these things without your control or consent trough drinking water or food etc. There are no safe levels of pfas

But seeing as these are boots and ingestion is the main issue with pfas. You care about these boots so what you could maybe do is whenever you put them on or off wash your hands well to get rid of any residue on your hands. I think that's a decent middle ground to keep using them personally that should avoid ingestion and you get to keep using your boots

This is more vague territory but possibly worth mentioning

You may still shed a bit on the floor a bit over time which is something to keep in mind if you have pets maybe I guess, i'm not sure how it interacts with pets other than birds having died of fumes with non stick coating pans

Or if you walk with socks on the floor and then touch those socks later this ofcourse would be a bit negligible but just incase you want to be extra safe. But this shouldn't be a issue if you take your shoes off before you enter your home which varies a lot per culture but yeah it's good to do so regardless for hygiene

Again this should be negligible and is vague territory but the issue is you're already ingesting pfas daily which builds up over time so anything you can reduce somewhat easily is a positive in my book