PFAS Explained: These Forever Chemicals Are Being Banned from a Variety of Outdoor Products. Now Gear Makers Are Scrambling

PFAS are poisoning America’s watersheds and will eventually be banned in several states. That will require the outdoor gear industry to make some major changes

By Laura Lancaster

Posted On May 8, 2024 

Outdoor gear is in the midst of a sea change. A common family of chemicals used for waterproofing, stain resistance, and durability — PFAS — is being banned in textiles in California and in apparel in New York starting in 2025. As a result, outdoor gear companies are working hard to remove these chemicals from their products. With PFAS being utilized in DWR treatments on wind jackets, waterproof treatment on down, tent fabrics, rain jackets, and much more, this will require a major shift for the industry. But what is PFAS, and why is it being banned? 

The reality is that the PFAS found in rain jackets is just the tip of the iceberg. PFAS have been in use for decades across a range of products and industries, including the outdoor industry. And the full impact of that toxic legacy is now turning up in our environment and in our bodies at an alarming rate. 

What Is PFAS?

PFAS, short for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, was originally developed by Dupont in 1938, and a version of it quickly found its way into any number of household goods under a familiar name: Teflon. Its waterproof and stain-resistant properties made it extremely popular. Today there are nearly 15,000 chemicals in the PFAS family, including PFOS (Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid) and PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic Acid), which are found in everything from rain jackets to food packaging to shampoo.

What makes these chemicals unique is the carbon and fluorine bonds in their atomic structure. Because carbon and fluorine bonds are very strong, they do not break down easily. For that reason, they are known as “forever chemicals.” They build up in the environment, and they build in the human body. Based on an analysis of survey data from the National Center for Health Statistics for the years 2011 to 2012, it is estimated that 97 percent of Americans have PFAS in their bloodstream. 

Buildup of PFAS in the body can lead to cancer, developmental delays in children, and fertility issues. While it was once thought there might be some safe levels of some types of PFAS, the more research is done, the less this appears to be the case. It also seems that companies that made PFAS knew about its risks.

PFAS in Everyday Products

A lot of the coverage in outdoor media is currently focused on how legislation (particularly in California) is going to affect rain jacket quality, which makes sense given that many modern rain jackets (although not all) rely on PFAS for waterproofing. PFAS is found in the DWR; and it’s found in the waterproof membrane. Gear companies that have not already transitioned toward a PFAS-free chemistry for their outdoor apparel are scrambling to get there before California’s deadline. 

But if you already own gear that contains PFAS, feel free to hang on to it. First off, it’s not the only thing you’ve got that contains PFAS. If your shirt (or your kid’s shirt) is advertising itself as “stain resistant,” then it probably utilizes PFAS. It’s in shampoo, nail polish, and toilet paper. Up until very recently, it was in carpets. It’s practically omnipresent inside your home. But more importantly, there is currently no indication that PFAS passes the skin barrier readily enough to pose a risk.

How PFAS Gets into the Bloodstream

A sign warns hunters not to eat deer because of elevated levels of PFAS chemicals in game animals.

Photo by Drew YoungeDyke, National Wildlife Federation via AP

PFAS gets into your body when you ingest it, which means breathing, eating, or drinking. Here’s how that is currently happening.

For most Americans, the risk of breathing in PFAS is relatively minor. This is mainly an issue for individuals who work in chemical plants where PFAS is being manufactured. However, there may be risks to individuals who live near these factories. One exception to this is skiers and snowboarders, as there is risk of exposure when applying ski wax containing PFAS. Vermont has banned PFAS in ski wax and popular ski destinations, including Park City, Utah, have followed suit. 

Accidentally munching on some PFAS is more of an issue. While the potential risk from teflon pans is reasonably well known at this point in time, we know less about how common PFAS is in food packaging. Studies have shown that eating out more often, as well as consuming certain high-risk products like tea and microwave popcorn, is associated with higher levels of PFAS in the bloodstream. As a result, much more legislation — including from California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington — is focused on removing PFAS from food packaging. 

Unfortunately for hunters and anglers, eliminating processed foods from your diet will not necessarily protect you from PFAS exposure. In some states, deer have been found with high levels of PFAS in their system. So have freshwater fish. 

PFAS Is in the Water

The biggest problem with PFAS is that it’s increasingly turning up in the water supply. There are a few reasons this is happening. PFAS leaching out of landfills, due to the sheer number of products in said landfills that contain PFAS. Another source of contamination is a type of firefighting foam called AFFF, which contains PFAS. This foam was very effective at fighting fires, but in places where it was used, including training grounds, it leached into the groundwater. This was a particular problem for the military, which contaminated the water with PFAS as a result of AFFF at more than 300 of their fire training sites. While some states have banned AFFF, it is still used by the military and municipal firefighters in some instances. A third issue is that the manufacturing plants that produce PFAS have been polluting rivers and watersheds. Dupont and the state of Ohio have already reached a settlement for $110 million dollars to clean up the PFOA that Dupont dumped into the Ohio River. Dupont’s subsidiary, Chemors, is currently embroiled in litigation over contamination in Cape Fear River in North Carolina. And the outdoor industry proper is a part of this problem, too. Gore (of Gore-tex notoriety) is currently dealing with its own lawsuit as a result of air and groundwater PFAS contamination to the community near their Cherry Hill, Maryland, plant. 

Protecting Yourself and Your Family

If you’re concerned about PFAS exposure, your first step should be to check out what PFAS testing has been done on your local water supply. As of 2022, the EPA’s recommendation for PFOS and PFOA (two of the most common PFAS chemicals) in drinking water is 0.04 ppt (parts per trillion). If your well or municipality’s water source turns out to be affected, you can reduce your exposure by changing the water you use for cooking and drinking. Be judicious about switching to bottled water, however, as the water sources used by some bottled water companies are also contaminated by PFAS. A better choice is to get a filter that is regulated to NSF/ANSI 53-2022 standards, like Epic Water Filters.

Read Next: The Best Filtered Water Bottles

But What About My Rain Gear?

First off, it’s worth noting that it’s not just rain gear that is being affected by this upcoming legislation. California’s Assembly Bill No. 1817 covers all apparel as well as textiles, such as backpacks. But the biggest change will be to rain gear, particularly rain gear that utilizes a Gore-tex membrane. While Gore-tex came out with a PFAS-free membrane in 2021, it is expected that the rest of their line will not be permissible under the upcoming law. (We reached out to Gore for this story, but did not hear back in time for publication.)

Outdoor enthusiasts are likely to be split on the issue of their rain gear. Some may be wondering if they need to wait until the ban goes into effect in 2025 to start purchasing PFAS-free gear. The answer is, no. If you’re looking to purchase a rain jacket that is free from PFAS today, you have a few options, including Patagonia’s Boulder Fork, Cotopaxi’s Ceilo series, or Fjallraven’s Keb Eco Shell. If you have an existing jacket that you are interested in re-upping the waterproofing on, you can also purchase PFAS-free technical washes, like those from Nikwax.

Other companies are working on getting their apparel lines up to date with these new regulations in time for the deadline at the end of this year. Companies like Forloh fall into this category. This is especially tricky when PFAS is being used for component parts — in my test of the best down jackets earlier this year, several companies told me that their jackets were PFAS free with the exception of the paint on the zipper. 

Listen to Learn More: Forever Chemicals 

But others may be concerned that great rain jackets are simply being regulated out of existence. First, there is a temporary exemption in both New York and California’s laws, for “severe wet conditions.” The law is specific that “hiking, camping, skiing, climbing, bicycling, and fishing” are not considered “severe wet conditions.” As examples of activities where severe wet conditions might be encountered, it gives “offshore fishing, offshore sailing, whitewater kayaking, and mountaineering.” When queried, both Stone Glacier and Kuiu stated that certain products in their lineup would fall under this latter category. But even this reprieve for “severe wet conditions” is limited to three years, with complete bans coming into effect in 2028. 

I think there is no question that consumers are going to see a difference in how gear that is PFAS-free performs, especially as it pertains to how long waterproofing lasts without retreatment. But how big of a difference it will be and the extent to which typical outdoor users will be impacted remains to be seen. OL plans to run a long-term test of current for-sale jackets containing PFAS in both the waterproof membrane and the DWR finish. We’ll compare this against current best-in-class PFAS free chemistry to see how they compare. However, due to the importance of reducing PFAS in our environment, we will be prioritizing PFAS-free gear in our testing and review stories going forward. 

White Rural Rage Is Shallow Pandering to Elitist Liberals

White Rural Rage, full of tired tropes about the bigotry of rural white Americans, distorts more than it reveals about the growth of the Trumpian right. It’s a shallow exercise in pandering to the prejudices of NPR liberals.

Flags and a sign supporting Donald Trump and Mike Pence are displayed on the side of a highway in rural Pennsylvania. (Paul Weaver / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty Images)

BYRYAN ZICKGRAF

JACOBIN
05.08.2024

Review of White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy by Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman (Random House)

These are not good times for #TheResistance.

The election of Donald Trump was a day of infamy that changed everything, and elite liberals can’t seem to escape the specter of November 2016. They’re still playing the old hits — Trump is an Existential Threat! America is becoming like The Handmaid’s Tale! — while the public increasingly yawns and tunes them out.

Seven years later, #TheResistance resembles Moby Dick’s Captain Ahab: maniacally hunting Trump and his voting base — who seem nigh unkillable at this point — at the expense of their own sanity. In polls, the former president is neck and neck with Joe Biden.

Enter Paul Waldman, the Washington Post columnist whose new polemic, White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy, makes it clear that his white whale is still the white working class. His quest to paint them as undereducated rubes blinded by their own gleeful racism, sexism, and xenophobia has been going strong since at least 2016. “If you have any sense, you’re coming to the realization that it was all a scam. You got played,” he wrote about Trump voters in a postelection 2016 Washington Post column. “While you were chanting ‘Lock her up!’ he was laughing at you for being so gullible.”

Cowritten with political scientist Tom Schaller, White Rural Rage is a book-length version of that argument — but with the MSNBC-friendly amendment that rural whites aren’t just dumb hicks, they’re Public Enemy #1. “More than at any point in modern history, the survival of the United States as a modern, stable, multi-ethnic democracy is threatened by a White rural minority that wields outsize electoral power,” they proclaim.

Forget Davos, capitalism, global war, or climate change — democracy truly dies at the Iowa State Fair with dudes who care a little too much about their Ford F-150s.

Their argument goes something like this: a combination of economic, social, and health care woes, along with a sense of being left out of contemporary culture and discourse, has led whites in small-town America to go beyond their usual bigoted beliefs and increasingly reject the legitimacy of the political system itself — by, well, voting for the Bad Candidate.

For Waldman and Schaller, these democracy-hating conservatives hold disproportionate electoral sway — as demonstrated by Trump’s 2016 victory via the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote, as well as the so-called “mythic power” they hold in the form of flattery and attention bestowed on them by the media and politicians.

In the New Republic, the authors warn that it’s only getting worse, that “as the rest of the country moved away from Trump [in 2020] rural whites lurched toward him by nine points, from 62% to 71%.” If Trump wins in 2024, “it will be — once again — because rural white people put him there,” they conclude.

There is some truth here, but it’s distorted. The book supports its thesis with a blizzard of facts, polls, and anecdotes — which, while mostly accurate, are cherry-picked for maximum effect. Attitudes expressed in opinion polls, rather than violent incidents themselves, are treated as proof of a tendency toward violence. But if white rural Americans really are the tip of the spear of coming fascism, wouldn’t there be more cases of organized political violence coming from that group since January 6?

Waldman and Schaller also ignore the fact that only 20 percent of Trump’s support actually comes from rural America, while some fifty-eight million votes in 2020 were cast for Trump in cities and suburbs. The country’s eleven largest metropolitan areas gave Trump more total votes than all of rural America combined. Los Angeles County handed Trump 1.1 million votes, but no one is writing a book called What’s the Matter With the San Fernando Valley?

Nor is there any mention of the class dealignment that’s more clearly emerged since 2016. Trump’s support is no doubt highest among whites, but over 40 percent of working-class Latinos also voted GOP in the last election, while black votes for Trump jumped from 8 percent in 2016 to 12 percent in 2020. For better or worse, the Democrats have increasingly become the party of highly educated, socially liberal urbanites, and Republicans are more and more making inroads among non-college-educated, working-class voters of all races.

Instead of addressing these inconvenient truths and attempting to provide serious recommendations about how to combat the rising far right, White Rural Rage would rather serve up calculated journalistic White Urban Rage against working-class people who vote for pandering politicians who only pay them lip service — which, of course, is not a feature exclusive to poor GOP voters.

There’s a certain irony in the fact that the book argues that white rural people feel an unearned sense of victimhood that helps fuel a politics of grievance and then demonizes them for these attitudes. The existence of White Rural Rage is itself the sort of evidence that will confirm the beliefs of those who think coastal liberals despise them — thereby fueling the very cultural grievances that drive many voters to the Right.

Not that we should be surprised: elites scapegoating the white working class is as American as apple pie. Critics of rebellious indentured servants in seventeenth-century Virginia called them society’s “offscourings,” a polite term for shit. Early American landowners described the rural poor as foolish “crackers” and idle, vagabond “squatters.” My favorite is an 1877 Chicago Tribune editorial, which called striking Irish and Czech workers “hordes of ragamuffins, vagrants, saloon bummers, and generally speaking the dregs of society.”

I can almost hear Waldman quoting those lines in White Rural Rage, while rasping the old 2016 mantra: “But her emails. . . .”


Ryan Zickgraf is a journalist based in Atlanta.

Pro-Palestinian campus protests spread to UK universities

AFP
May 8, 2024


Pro-Palestinian encampments have sprung up at UK universities following similar action in the United States - Copyright AFP BENJAMIN CREMEL
Akshata KAPOOR

The grass outside SOAS University of London has been dotted with a handful of tents since the start of this week, with Palestinian flags and slogans calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

There are similar sites at universities across Britain, and so far the protests have been peaceful and left alone by the police, unlike in the United States, France and other countries.

Students, many of whom were masked, sat in a circle on a blue tarpaulin to take part in what they called a “teach-in” while others took stock of groceries and supplies piled up inside the shelters.

At SOAS, former student Yara, 23, estimated that more than 20 students were taking part — with about a dozen other encampments at universities elsewhere in the UK, following protests on US campuses in April.

The aim, she told AFP, was to “apply pressure on the SOAS administration to adhere to the demands of the students”.

That includes disclosing links to and divesting from all companies complicit in what she said was “Israel’s illegal settlement economy and arms trade”.

– Solidarity –

Warwick University in Coventry, central England, kicked off first with a “Gaza solidarity encampment” on April 26.

Tents then sprang up outside universities in Newcastle, Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, Cambridge and Oxford.

At Edinburgh, a group of students began a hunger strike to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. In Cambridge, orange tents were lined up neatly outside King’s College, which dates back to 1441.

Cambridge said in a statement that it respected the freedom of speech and right to protest, adding that it would “not tolerate anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and any other form of racial or religious hatred”.

Jewish students have voiced concerns for their safety and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is mindful of similar problems in the UK as protests in other countries turn violent.

He has called university vice-chancellors for a meeting to discuss the safety of Jewish students in universities, and denounced an “unacceptable rise in anti-Semitism” on campus.

British charity the Community Security Trust, which tracks anti-Jewish hate crime, says there have been “unprecedented levels of anti-Semitism” since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s military response.

The attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also took about 250 hostages. Israel estimates 128 of them remain in Gaza including 36 who officials say are dead.

Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 34,844 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

The SOAS students were given support on Wednesday by Jeremy Corbyn, the veteran left-winger who led the main opposition Labour party from 2015 to 2020.

Corbyn said the university should “recognise that students have strong, legitimate, valid opinions”.

“They shouldn’t be closing down protests. They should be recognising the very strong humanitarian views of young people all across this country,” he said while attending a rally at the camp.

Corbyn, now suspended from the Labour party, was accused of allowing anti-Semitism to flourish during his tenure, and once called Hamas and their Iran-backed allies Hezbollah “friends” — comments he later said he regretted.

– ‘As long as it takes’ –

Yara, who has been at the camp since it sprung up three days ago, said the student protesters were planning to “stay for as long as it takes” for SOAS, which specialises in Africa, Asia and Middle East studies, to accept their demands.

“The first night was really rainy and wet and muddy,” she said.

“But honestly, no matter how much discomfort students may feel camping out, it’s actually just a fraction of the conditions in which the Palestinians in Gaza have been experiencing.”

Having previously only attended the protests, where dozens more students gathered, one 19-year-old SOAS student who studies global development and law said they planned to join the camp this weekend.

“I don’t think I can wait until my degree’s over because people are dying. So being in encampments is as useful as I can be,” said the student, who did not wish to be named.

“I just said I’d be here because they need people. And I am people.”

Trinity students end encampment after divestment pledge



Students taking part in an encampment protest over the Gaza conflict on the grounds of Trinity College in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA)

By Cillian Sherlock and Cate McCurry, PA

Today 

A student encampment protest at Trinity College Dublin is to end following an agreement between senior management and protesters.


Visitors have been unable to access the historic Book of Kells since action began on Friday evening when the activists set up tents inside the campus of the prestigious Dublin university.

The students taking part in the protest had vowed to maintain the blockade until the university cuts all ties with Israel.

University management met with student representatives on Wednesday to discuss the situation.

In a statement, Trinity said it will complete a divestment from investments in Israeli companies that have activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and appear on the UN Blacklist in this regard.

This process is expected to be completed by June.

It said it would “endeavour” to divest in other Israeli companies, noting that its supplier list contains just one Israeli company which will remain until March 2025 for contractual reasons.

Senior Dean Professor Eoin O’Sullivan, who led the talks for Trinity, said: “We are glad that this agreement has been reached and are committed to further constructive engagement on the issues raised.

“We thank the students for their engagement.”

Trinity said plans are being put in place to return to normal university business for staff, students, and members of the public.



A Palestine sticker on a sign at the entrance to Trinity College in Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA)

Outgoing students’ union president Laszlo Molnarfi said the resolution of talks with the university was an “unprecedented” result.


Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr Molnarfi said: “Students, staff and the public united have pushed Trinity towards boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).”

He said he hopes the protest at the university will inspire other students.

“It shows the power of grassroots student and staff fighting for a just cause of Palestinian liberation and to end complicity with Israeli genocide, apartheid and settler colonialism.

“Students over the world are standing up for what is right.”

In its statement on Wednesday, Trinity said: “We fully understand the driving force behind the encampment on our campus and we are in solidarity with the students in our horror at what is happening in Gaza.


“We abhor and condemn all violence and war, including the atrocities of October 7th, the taking of hostages and the continuing ferocious and disproportionate onslaught in Gaza. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the dehumanisation of its people is obscene.

“We support the International Court of Justice’s position that ‘Israel must take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide in relation to members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.’

“A real and lasting solution that respects the human rights of everyone needs to be found.”

The scenes at Trinity follow a wave of similar student protests at university campuses across the US.

The encampment was initiated days after it emerged that the university authorities had fined the students’ union more than 200,000 euro over previous protests on campus.


It invoiced the union for 214,285 euro after a series of demonstrations about fees and rent, as well as pro-Palestinian solidarity protests.

The university cited a loss of revenue due to blockades of the Book of Kells and famous Long Room library among the reasons for the fine.

The protesting students called for a “retroactive amnesty” for students involved in protests on campus and the rescinding of the bill imposed on the student’s union.

Asked about the status of the fines, Mr Molnarfi said this was a matter for further engagement with the university.

Trinity is also establishing a taskforce on related matters with student and staff representatives, led be an external chair.



Tanaiste Micheal Martin (Brian Lawless/PA)

Elsewhere, the Irish deputy premier said he is “horrified” by events unfolding in Rafah, describing the levels of violence as “unconscionable”.

Israel has threatened to launch a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city.

More than one million civilians are sheltering in Rafah after evacuating other parts of Gaza amid Israel’s war in the region.

The Israeli military seized control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Israeli troops said they had reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, a key terminal for the entry of humanitarian aid that was closed nearly three days earlier after a Hamas rocket attack.



Protesters demonstrated outside Leinster House in Dublin calling on Israel not to invade Rafah (Niall Carson/PA)

Tanaiste Micheal Martin said he was “really horrified” with the events.

Speaking at the Arbour Hill commemoration event, Mr Martin said: “It’s quite shocking, the level of human suffering.

There is an urgent need for medicines, for food and for the basics of life to get in for the people of Gaza. It's only unconscionable that this level of violence continuesTanaiste Micheal Martin

“The civilian causalities, death and very serious injuries on a daily basis being (endured) by the people of Gaza.

“The taking of the Rafah crossing, for example, creates huge challenges for humanitarian aid getting into Gaza.

“I have seen myself the amount of aid has been stopped already.


“There is an urgent need for medicines, for food and for the basics of life to get in for the people of Gaza.

“It’s only unconscionable that this level of violence continues.




Protesters called for sanctions against Israel (Niall Carson/PA)

“We need an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages and then we need discussion on the political track on how Gaza is reconstructed because what the people have gone through there is quite horrific and it is shocking and unacceptable, it has to stop.”

On Wednesday, protesters from the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign gathered outside Leinster House in support of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Rafah.

Demonstrators waved Palestine flags and called for Israel not to invade Rafah and to impose sanctions against Israel.

Students’ hunger strike is ‘last resort’ to get university to listen on Gaza

Students said they have turned to hunger strikes as a ‘last resort’ after other methods of protest failed (Andrew Milligan/PA)

By Nick Forbes, PA Scotland

Yesterday 

An Edinburgh University student taking part in a hunger strike in protest against the war in Gaza said it is a “last resort” after other methods of protest failed.

The student, who referred to herself only as Nevis, is one of five people currently on hunger strike in the city, with more members of the university’s Justice for Palestine Society due to join the hunger strike in the coming days.

The protesters’ demands include the university ending its investments in companies and funds they see as linked to the Israeli military.

Edinburgh University principal and vice-chancellor, Professor Sir Peter Mathieson, urged the students on hunger strike not to risk their health.

Deciding to go on hunger strike is a last resort situation, to force upper management to face the situation they are putting their students in

Nevis

It is part of a wider protest against the war in Gaza that saw activists set up a campsite next to the Scottish Parliament on Friday April 26, and around 40 students occupy the lawn in the university’s Old College on Sunday May 5.

Nevis said the hunger strike was intended to force the university to pay attention to them after protesters had “taken every means of action we could” to get them to engage with their demands.

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“We’ve done protests every week, we’ve been occupying buildings, we’ve written a petition that gathered almost 2,000 signatures, we’ve tried negotiations, we’ve tried open letters, we’ve tried about everything,” she said.

“We did meet with upper management but we were just stalled and passed from one bureaucratic process to the other without getting any actual engagement with our demands.”

She added: “Deciding to go on hunger strike is a last resort situation, to force upper management to face the situation they are putting their students in, and force them to face their failure at upholding a democratic process in the university and at listening to the staff and students.

“They do have a duty of care towards us so they kind of have to engage with us now. We have actually already gotten some engagement.”

She said members of university management would have “blood on their hands” if they did not take action to support the Palestinian cause.

Students occupied part of the Old College lawn on Sunday (Niall Carson/PA)

“To me it’s completely insane that people are continuing with business as usual,” she said.

“People are just desensitised to the point of ignoring a genocide taking place, and I think every singly person in parliament, in upper management, any single person who has any strategic power who is not doing something for Palestine has blood on their hands and needs to be aware of that and needs to get their heads out of the sand.”

Another protester at the Old College site, who referred to himself as Zaater, said the university had “a very particular special role” in events in the Middle East as former university chancellor Arthur Balfour signed the Balfour Declaration, which was key to the formation of the state of Israel, “in the very walls of this building”.

He said one of the motivations for the protest was to “bring history full circle… confronting Balfour’s legacy directly, continuing with (current chancellor) Peter Mathieson”.

Prof Sir Mathieson said in a statement: “We have very recently been notified of the intention of an unknown number of students to commence a hunger strike as an indication of their strength of feeling and determination around issues related to Palestine and Israel.

“Whilst we recognise their bodily autonomy, we appeal to them and others not to take risks with their own health, safety and wellbeing.

“Please make yourself known to us at any point at which we may be able to direct you to support.

We are deeply concerned for the wellbeing of the students taking part in this latest action and we urge them to prioritise their health

University of Edinburgh spokesperson

“We are in daily contact with the protesters to ensure they are aware of the health and wellbeing support available to them.”

A University of Edinburgh spokesperson said: “The continuing violence and loss of life in Palestine is deeply distressing and we understand that members of our community are rightly concerned about the devastating toll of this ongoing conflict.

“We have been engaging with student and staff groups on this issue for several months and we are committed to listening to their concerns. We are deeply concerned for the wellbeing of the students taking part in this latest action and we urge them to prioritise their health.

“We steadfastly support the right to take part in lawful, peaceful and respectful protest and we are monitoring the situation to ensure the safety of the protesters, while also working to minimise disruption to staff, students and visitors to our campus.”

The students’ action comes as students from more than a dozen UK universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, take similar action over the Israel-Hamas conflict.

University vice-chancellors have been invited to a meeting at No 10 Downing Street on Thursday, where Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Education Secretary Gillian Keegan will discuss antisemitism on campuses and ensuring the safety of Jewish students.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesperson said on Tuesday: “The right to free speech does not include the right to harass people or incite violence.

“We expect university leaders to take robust action in dealing with that kind of behaviour and that will be the subject of the conversation in No 10 later this week to ensure a zero-tolerance approach to this sort of behaviour is adopted on all campuses.”