Rael was founded with a mission to provide safe, high performance cycle care including period care protection made without harsh ingredients and harmful substances. This means proactively taking steps to minimize the potential for hazardous substances to make their way into Rael’s products, including using safer materials in Rael products and implementing quality control procedures in Rael’s manufacturing processes to enhance the well-being of our customers, our supply chain, and the planet. As part of our ethos, we work closely with our partners and manufacturers to deliver high quality products with a focus on customer safety.
With the potential link between period underwear and PFAS, Rael is proactively taking precautionary measures to ensure that toxic or harmful chemicals are not intentionally added to our products, including by regularly testing random lots of products for PFAS.
To see test results please scroll down to the bottom of the blog post. These results are from independent, accredited 3rd party facilities.
What are PFAS
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large class of thousands of synthetic chemicals. They all contain carbon-fluorine bonds, which are one of the strongest chemical bonds known. PFAS are widely used because they have unique performance properties, such as surfactant properties and functions that make them ideal as water repellents i.e. the potential link between PFAS and reusable underwear given the repellent nature.
Some of the major industry sectors using PFAS include textiles, apparel, household products, and electronics. The same desirable properties have a downside in that PFAS resist degradation, meaning they break down very slowly in the environment.
According to the United State Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are over twelve thousand different PFAS out there. Scientific studies have linked high-level exposure to some PFAS to harmful health effects in humans and animals, and more research is ongoing to understand health impact from exposures to PFAS.
While it is not currently feasible to test for +12,000 PFAS directly, we do know that all PFAS contain organic fluorine (this is the “F” in PFAS). Organic fluorine is typically synthetic and is one known PFAS marker. Meaning, testing for organic fluorine is an efficient way to screen if a product may contain any of the thousands of different PFAS.
We Do Not Intentionally Add PFAS To Our Products
We do not intentionally use or add PFAS in the manufacturing process. However, PFAS are now so widely dispersed in the environment like our drinking water, PFAS can also be unavoidably present in supply chain processes. With that said, Rael has specific quality measures in place in the areas we can control to help identify potential contamination before it hits your door.
Our Process
Our safety and quality control processes include partnering closely with suppliers and manufacturers. We require confirmation from our suppliers and manufacturers that they do not intentionally add PFAS to the fabrics used in our products. We regularly test the fabrics as part of our quality control process. Once tests come back as Not Detected, the products are released with assurance that PFAS have not been detected, which helps further confirm that our suppliers and manufacturers have not intentionally added PFAS to the materials used in our products.
Test Results
As we understand the importance of this topic, we want to publish our 3rd party certified test results for quality assurance. Our results show that no detectable levels of organic fluorine* or PFCS** were found.
* less than 20ppm
** less than 1ppm
ppb = parts per billion
ppm = parts per million
Rael takes customer safety seriously and is committed to continuing to monitor the complex, ever-changing world of PFAS and will update this blog on any changes or updates.