Smartwatch and fitness tracker bands have elevated levels of PFAS, study says. How concerning are these forever chemicals?

What a new study says about PFAS in smartwatches and fitness trackers. (Getty Creative)

Smartwatches are a hot-ticket gift over the holidays, but a new study might have you rethink how you strap the device to your wrist in the future.

The study, which was just published in the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, found that some smartwatch and fitness tracker bands may expose the skin to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), aka forever chemicals. In fact, more expensive wristbands made from fluorinated synthetic rubber can have especially high amounts of a particular forever chemical called perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA).

“We actually saw a full-page ad in a magazine that promoted ‘fluoroelastomer’ watch bands, and my research group was surprised to see anybody advertising PFAS in a product,” Graham Peaslee, study co-author and a professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame, tells Yahoo Life. “We realized that many people probably didn’t recognize that fluoroelastomers are a type of PFAS.”

For the study, the research team screened 22 wristbands across a range of brands and price points. Some were brand-new; others were previously worn. The researchers discovered that all of the 13 bands that advertised that they were made from fluoroelastomers contained fluorine, which indicates the potential presence of PFAS. Two of the nine bands that didn’t advertise that they were made from fluoroelastomers also contained fluorine.