LC-MS/MS Finds PFAS Migration from Stuffed Toys

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) show up in all sorts of fabrics and everyday products, which means pretty much everyone gets exposed to them in one way or another. Babies and young children might be exposed differently than adults, though, mainly because they tend to put things in their mouths often. Even so, no one has really looked closely at how much of these chemicals they might be swallowing or absorbing from chewing on things like stuffed toys made of fabric. In response, Swiss researchersset out to measure how much PFAS could transfer from store-bought stuffed toys into saliva under conditions similar to a child mouthing or chewing on one, figure out how much this might add to a young child's overall exposure to these chemicals, and test whether washing the toys beforehand actually helps reduce that exposure. PFAS migration was assessed using artificial saliva under standardized conditions and quantified by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). A paper based on this research was published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidimiology.¹

Why Are Infants and Young Children Especially Vulnerable to PFAS Exposure?

Babies and young children are seen as especially at risk when it comes to PFAS exposure, due to a mix of things about how their bodies work and how they behave. For starters, since they're so much smaller than adults, they end up taking in more of these chemicals relative to their body weight. In addition, their kidneys aren't fully developed yet, so they're not as good at filtering these chemicals out of the body. Furthermore, because their organs are still growing and developing so rapidly, these chemicals can spread more easily into those developing tissues.²On top of these physical factors, children also behave in ways that make things worse; they're constantly putting their hands and random objects in their mouths, and they end up swallowing a lot more household dust than adults typically do. All of this adds up to significantly higher exposure during a time when their immune, hormone, and brain systems are still developing and especially sensitive to disruption.³

What Evidence Exists That Everyday Children's Products Contribute to PFAS Exposure?

Recent research suggests that everyday fabrics and products made for children could be a real, meaningful source of PFAS exposure. Studies have found these chemicals in 97% of car seats tested, as well as in nearly 9 out of 10 household textiles, and even in dust collected from childcare settings. Many of these products are treated with fluorinated coatings to make them water- and stain-resistant, and these coatings can shed shorter-chain PFAS chemicals during normal, everyday use. Researchers have shown that these chemicals can transfer into simulated sweat and other fluids meant to mimic human bodily fluids, especially for PFAS types with eight or fewer fluorine-carbon bonds.^4-6

“Despite these observations,” write the authors of the paper,¹ “comparatively little attention has been given to articles specifically designed for infants, such as comforters and stuffed toys, which are subject to repeated and prolonged mouthing and therefore represent a plausible route for salivary mobilization of PFAS.”

How Much PFAS Do Stuffed Toys Expose Infants and Toddlers To?

The study looked at 18 stuffed toys made for babies and toddlers. Researchers used a straightforward calculation method to estimate how much PFAS a child might take in on a daily and weekly basis from mouthing these toys. They also calculated a safety buffer to see how close that exposure might come to levels of concern and cross-checked their estimates against real-world data on PFAS levels found in people's bodies. In addition, they tested whether simply rinsing the toys with water beforehand made any difference in reducing how much PFAS transferred out of them.¹

The researchers report that every single stuffed toy tested contained PFAS, and the type that leached out the most was typically a shorter-chain version called PFHxA. Interestingly, just a handful of toys were responsible for most of the total PFAS detected across the whole batch. When it came to the four PFAS chemicals that European regulators specifically monitor, estimated exposure levels stayed below the official safety threshold. However, when researchers looked more closely (using safety-margin calculations and comparing against real biomonitoring data0, some newer and shorter-chain PFAS chemicals stood out as more concerning, with the level of risk varying depending on the specific chemical and toy involved. As for washing, it helped reduce PFAS levels in most toys, but oddly enough, it increased PFAS migration for a few specific chemicals and products, suggesting the effect is not consistent or predictable across the board.¹

“This study,” wrote the authors of the paper,¹ “demonstrates that stuffed toys represent a relevant and often underappreciated source of early-life PFAS exposure. PFAS migration was observed across all products and was dominated by short-chain compounds, with perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA) emerging as the main driver of exposure relevance. While intake of EFSA-regulated PFAS remained below guidance values, PFHxA showed a large influence on exposure metrics, including reduced MOE and high relative contributions in reverse-dosimetry analyses. These findings,” they opine, “reveal an important regulatory and knowledge gap for emerging PFAS and highlight the need to integrate mouthing-relevant exposure pathways into risk assessment of products intended for young children.”

Read More on Similar Topics
ATD-GC/MS Detection of Textile Chemicals in Children’s Clothing

Chromatographic and Mass Spectrometric Assessment of PFAS in Water-Resistant Winter Gloves

References

1. Nowak, L.; Beaud, J.; Sartori, L. et al. Stuffed Toys as a Source of Oral PFAS Exposure: Migration into Artificial Saliva and Exposure Assessment. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2026.DOI: 10.1038/s41370-026-00946-8
2. Ehrlich, V.; Bil, W.; Vandebriel, R. et al. Consideration of Pathways for Immunotoxicity of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). Environ Health 2023, 22 (1), 19. DOI: 10.1186/s12940-022-00958-5
3. Ames, J. L.; Sharma, V.; Lyall, K. Effects of Early-life PFAS Exposure on Child Neurodevelopment: A Review of the Evidence and Research Gaps. Curr Environ Health Rep. 2025, 12 (1), 9. DOI: 10.1007/s40572-024-00464-5
4. Wu, Y.; Miller, G. Z.; Gearhart, J. et al. Side-Chain Fluorotelomer-Based Polymers in Children Car Seats. Environ Pollut. 2021, 268 (Pt B), 115477. DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115477
5. Li, K.; Sun, X.; Qian, Y. et al. Sweat-Amplified Dermal Transfer and Combined Toxicity of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Organophosphate Esters Mixtures in Children's Textiles. Sci Total Environ. 2025, 1000, 180426. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.180426
6. Zheng, G.; Boor, B. E.; Schreder, E. et al. Indoor Exposure to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the Childcare Environment. Environ Pollut. 2020, 258, 113714. DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113714