Weird science: Ski wax will make you infertile

The good people over at Science magazine are blogging that too much ski wax is probably not a good thing. Apparently ski wax has a lot of stuff besides wax in it, including some nasty junk called perfluorinated octanoic acid (PFOA), and that's not the best thing to have in...

By Eric Peterson

March 5, 2010

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The good people over at Science magazine are blogging that too much ski wax is probably not a good thing.

Apparently ski wax has a lot of stuff besides wax in it, including some nasty junk called perfluorinated octanoic acid (PFOA), and that's not the best thing to have in your system if you're planning on reproducing, well, ever.

Science's Steven Powell reports PFOA being found in ski tech's blood in abnormally high concentrations:

[PFOA was found] in the blood of professional ski waxers at concentrations over 50 times normal, they report online in Environmental Science & Technology. What's more, the substance seems to stick around in the body: Novice ski wax technicians showed a spike in PFOA blood levels during the season that barely diminished in the off-season; experienced technicians sported massive, year-round concentrations similar to those seen in employees at plants manufacturing the chemical.

The report on PFOA's impact on fertility is here. Read it, if you dare, and please wax frugally.

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