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Seeing the title, you must be thinking that we’re talking about some old news like “a newly renovated store having excessive levels of formaldehyde,” right? Wrong, wrong, wrong! What we’re going to talk about today is this toxic and harmful substance – PFCs (perfluorinated compounds). (EHS.CN) What are PFCs? PFCs (perfluorinated compounds) are a class of toxic and harmful chemicals that can be divided into ionic and volatile forms; both forms include long-chain and short-chain compounds. Due to their waterproof and oil-resistant chemical properties, PFCs are widely used in consumer goods such as outdoor products, carpets, leather products, and coatings, as well as in industrial products. Some PFCs can enter the human body through various routes such as air, diet, and even breast milk; they can disrupt thyroid function, affect the immune system, and pose risks of causing birth defects as well as triggering cancer. In 2015, Greenpeace investigators found PFCs in various waterproof outdoor products. We also trekked through mountains to reach eight famous snow-capped peaks around the world that are regarded as outdoor sanctuaries in order to track PFCs; traces of PFCs were found in both water and snow samples collected from those high-altitude areas. It can be said that PFCs are everywhere. So here’s the question: if PFCs are present in such remote places, are there also many PFCs around us? Since PFCs are found in outdoor products, could their levels in outdoor product stores be excessive? Sure enough, by following this lead, we made a significant discovery! Laboratory tests showed that the concentration of PFCs in the air of some outdoor product stores was 20 to 60 times higher than that in ordinary indoor environments, and even 1,000 times higher than that in urban outdoor areas! Good heavens! Going to an outdoor product store is like acting as a “human drug absorber”?! I can’t stand it! From the end of 2015 to the first half of 2016, Greenpeace investigators selected 30 indoor locations in Europe and Asia, collecting air samples using both long-term sampling methods (20–30 hours) and short-term sampling methods (50 minutes). These 30 sampling sites included 13 outdoor gear stores located in Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Taiwan, with brands such as Mammut, The North Face, Haglöfs, and Norrona. We also selected 9 ordinary indoor locations as control groups. The results showed that the PFC concentrations in outdoor gear stores in Europe were 20 to 60 times higher than those in air samples taken from Greenpeace’s office in Hamburg, Germany, and 1,000 times higher than those in outdoor air in urban areas; whereas the PFC concentration levels in outdoor gear stores in Taiwan were roughly similar to those in Europe. All the tested outdoor brand specialty stores showed high concentrations of PFCs.