Paper drinking straws may be harmful and may not be better for the environment than plastic versions

"Eco-friendly" paper drinking straws contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals, a new study has concluded.

In the first analysis of its kind in Europe, and only the second in the world, Belgian researchers tested 39 brands of straws for the group of synthetic chemicals known as poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

PFAS were found in the majority of the straws tested and were most common in those made from paper and bamboo, the study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Food Additives and Contaminants, found.

PFAS are used to make everyday products, from outdoor clothing to non-stick pans, resistant to water, heat and stains. They are, however, potentially harmful to people, wildlife and the environment.

They break down very slowly over time and can persist over thousands of years in the environment, a property that has led to them being known as "forever chemicals."

They have been associated with a number of health problems, including lower response to vaccines, lower birth weight, thyroid disease, increased cholesterol levels, liver damage, kidney cancer and testicular cancer.

"Straws made from plant-based materials, such as paper and bamboo, are often advertised as being more sustainable and eco-friendly than those made from plastic," says researcher Dr Thimo Groffen, an environmental scientist at the University of Antwerp, who is involved in this study.

"However, the presence of PFAS in these straws means that's not necessarily true."

A growing number of countries, including the UK and Belgium, have banned sale of single-use plastic products, including drinking straws, and plant-based versions have become popular alternatives.

A recent study found PFAS in plant-based drinking straws in the US. Dr Groffen and colleagues wanted to find out if the same was true of those on sale in Belgium.

To explore this further, the research team purchased 39 different brands of drinking straw made from five materials -- paper, bamboo, glass, stainless steel and plastic.

The straws, which were mainly obtained from shops, supermarkets and fast-food restaurants, then underwent two rounds of testing for PFAS.

The majority of the brands (27/39, 69%) contained PFAS, with 18 different PFAS detected in total.

The paper straws were most likely to contain PFAS, with the chemicals detected in 18/20 (90%) of the brands tested. PFAS were also detected in 4/5 (80%) brands of bamboo straw, 3/4 (75%) of the plastic straw brands and 2/5 (40%) brands of glass straw. They were not detected in any of the five types of steel straw tested.

The most commonly found PFAS, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), has been banned globally since 2020.

Also detected were trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TFMS), "ultra-short chain" PFAS which are highly water soluble and so might leach out of straws into drinks.

The PFAS concentrations were low and, bearing in mind that most people tend to only use straws occasionally, pose a limited risk to human health. However, PFAS can remain in the body for many years and concentrations can build up over time.

"Small amounts of PFAS, while not harmful in themselves, can add to the chemical load already present in the body," says Dr Groffen.

It isn't known whether the PFAS were added to the straws by the manufacturers for waterproofing or whether were the result of contamination. Potential sources of contamination include the soil the plant-based materials were grown in and the water used in the manufacturing process.

However, the presence of the chemicals in almost every brand of paper straw means it is likely that it was, in some cases, being used as a water-repellent coating, say the researchers.

The study's other limitations include not looking at whether the PFAS would leach out of the straws into liquids.

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Water scarcity may spur improvements at manufacturing facilities

As climate change continues and the incidence of drought rise, water is increasingly becoming scarce for manufacturing. But a new study by researchers at Penn State and UCLA suggests that there is a silver lining -- companies that use water may pivot to become efficient and more eco-friendly during periods of water scarcity.

According to the researchers, just as water is an essential ingredient for life, it's also an essential ingredient for many manufacturing processes. Water is often consumed in large amounts while making many common products ranging from cars to smartphones to computer chips.

In their study, the researchers -- including Suvrat Dhanorkar and Suresh Muthulingam from Penn State and Charles Corbett from UCLA -- found that subsequent to periods of water scarcity, manufacturing facilities that use water extensively streamlined their processes to lower their toxic emissions into water, like lakes and rivers.

An added benefit the researchers found was that the changes in the processes also resulted in reduced toxic emissions into land and air. On average, the estimated reductions in toxic emissions were more than 2.5%.

Dhanorkar, associate professor of supply chain and information systems, said the study -- recently published in the journal Management Science -- is one of the first to flip the question of how industry is contributing to climate change and instead ask how industry is responding to climate-change induced events, like droughts.

"Most of the prior research has been focused on how companies are negatively affecting the environment," Dhanorkar said. "We wanted to flip it and see how companies respond to climate change. It opens a new area of research that can, in the future, start to look at not just manufacturing, but also how these climate change-induced events affect innovation and other economic factors like unemployment."

For the study, the researchers gathered data from 3,092 manufacturing facilities in Texas from 2000 to 2016. The researchers focused their study on Texas because the state frequently experiences droughts and periods of water scarcity, as well as produces many types of products, including ??food, petroleum, coal, chemicals, and metal.

The data included information on the weeks of drought experienced by each facility and the total amount of toxic emissions recorded at each facility.

"We found that water scarcity can induce manufacturing facilities that rely heavily on water to improve their environmental performance by lowering toxic releases, but only when they face persistent drought," said Muthulingam, associate professor of supply chain management. "These effects also extended into the facilities reducing emissions in other ways, such as into the land and air, too."

The researchers said one explanation for the results could be that water scarcity prompts companies to become more careful about how they use water. But, because water is used across processes, companies become aware of other areas where they can improve upon, as well.

"A lot of these industries use water at different points in their processes," Dhanorkar said. "So, when there's water shortage and you're investigating how to improve water usage, it may also reveal shortcomings in other aspects of the processes that aren't related to water, as well. These companies might be learning a lot about their processes not just from a water standpoint, but more broadly."

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