Abstract: This paper seeks to address a lack of research to comprehensively understand how 

people, especially teenagers, are exposed to PFAS in everyday life. This was done using a 

survey which asked participants how often they used products that commonly contained PFAS 

during the week. There were 52 participants in the survey, 38 of which were male and 14 of 

which were female. Roughly 96% of the respondents used at least one PFAS-containing 

product during the week, with around 52% using at least five. Females most frequently used 

mascara, averaging around 4 days a week. non-stick cookware was used with the greatest 

frequency across all participants, averaging about 3 days a week. Fast food, non-stick 

cookware, pizza, and grease removing cleaning solutions were all used by over 50% of 

respondents. mascara was used by roughly 79% of female respondents. The study also found 

that roughly 62% of respondents had never heard of PFAS, and only around 4% had high 

confidence in their knowledge of PFAS. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the 

consumer products that most expose teenagers to PFAS are mascara, non-stick cookware, fast 

food, and pizza, due to the findings that these are used by high percentages of respondents and 

with high average frequencies. Because of this, it is important that further research be 

conducted into PFAS alternatives for these products, or other methods of limiting teenagers’ 

exposure to PFAS in these products.