PFAS and play mats: what independent lab testing found
Over the past year, the same question has landed in my inbox again and again: "Are your mats PFAS free?"
For a long time my answer was simply that I did not hold PFAS test data, so I would not claim it. I could have pointed at the chemistry and said "silicone is not a fluorinated material, so it should be fine". But "should be fine" is not evidence, and the parents asking me this question want data, not reassurance.
So I went and got it. This is the article I could not write until now.
Where Studio Huske sits
Studio Huske mats are silicone leather. In the most recent testing round, the finished fabric was independently tested for total fluorine and more than 30 individual PFAS compounds, none detected. Across two years of laboratory reports, not one individual PFAS compound has ever been detected. The construction is silicone, polyester and pigments: no repellent finish where PFAS usually hide. The material story has the long version of the material itself.
What are PFAS, and why do parents ask about them?
PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a large family of synthetic chemicals built around carbon-fluorine bonds, one of the strongest bonds in organic chemistry. That strength is why they are useful in manufacturing, where they make textiles repel water, oil, and stains, and why they are called "forever chemicals": they break down extremely slowly, in the environment and in the body.
In textiles, PFAS usually arrive as a finish, a stain-repellent or water-repellent treatment applied to the fabric after it is made. A play mat is a textile that babies lie on, chew near, and eat over, so it is a completely reasonable thing to ask about. If you are weighing up mat materials more broadly, the comparison of foam, PVC and silicone leather mats covers that ground.
Why I would not say "PFAS free"
The trouble with the phrase "PFAS free" is that no test can back it up as an absolute. There are thousands of PFAS compounds. No laboratory tests for all of them, and every test has a detection limit below which nothing can be measured. A test can tell you that a laboratory looked hard, with sensitive methods, and found nothing. It cannot prove a universal negative.
Even OEKO-TEX, whose Standard 100 is one of the strictest textile safety certifications there is, says plainly that certification means the product has been tested for listed substances. It is not a "PFAS-free" certification, and OEKO-TEX itself says so.
So the claim I make is narrower: the fabric has been independently tested for total fluorine and more than 30 individual PFAS compounds, none detected in the most recent round. Here is what that testing looked like.
How the fabric was tested
The finished coated fabric that the mats are made from was tested in September 2025 by an independent laboratory, as part of the testing behind its OEKO-TEX Standard 100, Class 1 certification. Class 1 is the strictest class, the one for products intended for babies and toddlers. The fabric is sampled as finished material, not raw silicone, and the certification body chooses the sample colourway itself, a different one each year. The same testing ran in the 2024 round, so I hold two years of reports, and the numbers below come from both.
I did not commission a special test. After several customers asked about PFAS, I went back to the manufacturer and asked for the full laboratory reports behind the certificate, not just the certificate itself. The answer had been sitting in those reports all along.
Two separate lines of evidence came out of that testing.
1. Total fluorine: below the reporting limit in 2025
The laboratory measured total fluorine in the fabric using combustion ion chromatography. This is a screening method that captures fluorine from any fluorinated compound, organic or not. That makes it broader than the "total organic fluorine" (TOF) testing that careful low-tox reviewers ask brands for: a result below the reporting limit answers the TOF question with margin to spare. If a PFAS finish had been applied to the fabric, it would show up here as elevated fluorine, whatever the specific compound.
The 2025 result: below the 20 mg/kg reporting limit. OEKO-TEX has applied a total fluorine limit to certified products since 1 January 2024, and the pass limit is 100 mg/kg. So the fabric did not scrape past the threshold. Nothing was detected at all, at a reporting limit set at one fifth of the allowed level.
The 2024 round is worth showing alongside it, because that is the year the screen registered something. The individual PFAS panel in the same report still found no PFAS compound at all; what registered was total fluorine, at 38 mg/kg, about a third of the allowed level. Total fluorine counts fluorine from any source, organic or inorganic, so a reading on its own cannot say what the fluorine is. That is exactly the question the compound panel answers.
2. An individual PFAS panel: more than 30 compounds, all below detection
Alongside the fluorine screen, the laboratory ran a panel of more than 30 individual PFAS compounds. It included the names you may recognise from the news, PFOA and PFOS, along with PFBA, PFHxA, PFNA, the C9-C14 PFCA family, fluorotelomer alcohols, and the PFOS-related group.
Every single compound came back below the detection limit, in the 2024 round and again in the 2025 round.
| What was measured | Result | OEKO-TEX limit |
|---|---|---|
| Total fluorine, 2025 round | below 20 mg/kg, nothing detected | 100 mg/kg |
| Total fluorine, 2024 round | 38 mg/kg | 100 mg/kg |
| More than 30 individual PFAS compounds, 2024 and 2025 | none detected | per-compound limits |
Not one individual PFAS compound, in two years of testing.
Why this result makes sense
A test result is more convincing when the material explains it. This fabric has three components: a silicone coating, a polyester base cloth, and pigments mixed into the silicone. That is the whole recipe. The manufacturer confirmed in writing this August that it applies no other finishes, water-repellents, or treatments.
That matters because PFAS in textiles almost always come from added finishes, applied to make a fabric do something it cannot do on its own. Silicone does not need the help. The water resistance and stain resistance of the mats come from the silicone coating itself, which is fluorine-free chemistry: silicon and oxygen, not carbon and fluorine. There is simply nothing in the construction that would call for a fluorochemical treatment.
If you want the deeper dive into what the material is and how it behaves, the material story page covers it, and the sister article on formamide and EVA foam play mats covers how the same question plays out for foam.
What these results do and do not mean
What the results mean:
- In the most recent testing round (2025), the finished coated fabric, the actual material of a Roam or any of the other mats, was screened for total fluorine by an independent laboratory, and nothing was detected, at a reporting limit five times stricter than the OEKO-TEX pass limit.
- More than 30 individual PFAS compounds were tested for, in both 2024 and 2025, and every one was below detection in both years.
- The 2024 fluorine screen did register 38 mg/kg, about a third of the allowed level, with a completely clean compound panel in the same report.
What they do not mean:
- They do not make "PFAS free" an absolute, provable fact. No test of any product can do that, for any brand.
- The OEKO-TEX Standard 100, Class 1 certificate is not itself a PFAS-free certification. The certificate tells you the fabric passed the standard's limits. The laboratory report behind it tells you what was actually measured, which is why I went after the report.
A certificate is a summary. The lab report is the evidence.
The answer I give now
So when the next email arrives asking "are your mats PFAS free?", my answer has changed shape. It is no longer "I don't hold test data, so I won't claim it". It is: in the most recent testing round, the fabric was independently tested for total fluorine and more than 30 individual PFAS compounds, none detected. And across the two years of reports I hold, not one individual PFAS compound has ever been detected.
For the surface your baby eats over and naps on, it is the answer I always wanted to be able to give.
If you want to understand the material behind these numbers, read the material story. It is the long version of everything above.
Frequently asked questions
Are silicone play mats PFAS free?
Silicone itself is built on silicon-oxygen chemistry, not the carbon-fluorine chemistry of PFAS. But a finished mat is more than its coating: base cloths, backings, and repellent finishes can all introduce PFAS, and no test can promise "PFAS free" as an absolute. The strongest answer available is test data. In the most recent testing round, the fabric these mats are made from was independently tested for total fluorine and more than 30 individual PFAS compounds, none detected, and no individual PFAS compound has been detected in two years of testing.
What are PFAS?
PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a family of thousands of synthetic chemicals built around carbon-fluorine bonds. In textiles they are mostly used as stain-repellent and water-repellent finishes. They are often called "forever chemicals" because they break down extremely slowly in the environment and the body.
How were the mats tested for PFAS?
The finished coated fabric was tested by an independent laboratory as part of OEKO-TEX Standard 100, Class 1 certification testing, in 2024 and again in September 2025, on a different colourway each round. Two methods were used: a total fluorine screen by combustion ion chromatography, which detects fluorine from any fluorinated compound, and an individual panel of more than 30 PFAS compounds including PFOA, PFOS, PFBA, PFHxA, PFNA, the C9-C14 PFCA family, and fluorotelomer alcohols.
What does "none detected" mean?
It means every measurement came back below the laboratory's detection or reporting limits. In the 2025 round, total fluorine was below the 20 mg/kg reporting limit, where the OEKO-TEX pass limit is 100 mg/kg, so nothing was found at one fifth of the allowed threshold. In 2024, total fluorine measured 38 mg/kg, about a third of the allowed level, while every individual PFAS compound on the panel was still below detection. "None detected" is the most a laboratory can report, which is why the compound panel matters more than any single headline number.
Does OEKO-TEX certification mean a product is PFAS free?
No, and OEKO-TEX says so itself: certification means the product was tested against the standard's listed substances and limits, not that it is certified "PFAS-free". Since 1 January 2024 the standard has included a total fluorine limit of 100 mg/kg. The certificate summarises a pass; the laboratory report behind it shows what was actually measured.
Which parts of the mat were tested?
The laboratory tested the finished coated fabric that the mats are made from: the silicone coating, the polyester base cloth, and the pigments together, as one material. The manufacturer has confirmed in writing that it applies no other finishes, water-repellents, or treatments.
Sources: the full 2024 and 2025 analysis reports behind the fabric's OEKO-TEX Standard 100, Class 1 certification, issued by an independent laboratory and held on file; OEKO-TEX Standard 100 limit values, including the total fluorine limit applied since 1 January 2024 (oeko-tex.com); the manufacturer's written composition confirmation, August 2026.
If you came here checking the mat in your basket: every Studio Huske mat is made from the same tested silicone leather fabric. The material story is the place to read what that fabric is.