Perfluorooctanoic Acid ( PFOA ) (conjugate base perfluorooctanoate ), also known as C8 , is a synthetic peroxylation carboxylic acid and fluorosurfactant. One industrial application is as a surfactant in emulsion polymerization of fluoropolymers. It has been used in the manufacture of leading consumer goods such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, Teflon and similar products). PFOA has been produced since the 1940s in industrial quantities. It is also formed by degradation of precursors such as some fluorotelomers.
PFOA continues indefinitely in the environment. It's poisonous. Since it is a suspected carcinogen, various studies have been conducted, but no association between PFOA and cancer appears, although suspicious and under investigation. PFOA has been detected in the blood of more than 98% of the general US population in the low range and sub-parts per billion (ppb), and higher rates in plant chemical workers and surrounding subpopulations. How the general population is exposed to PFOA is not fully understood. PFOA has been detected in industrial waste, stain-proof carpet, carpet cleaning fluid, house dust, microwave popcorn bag, water, food, some cookware and PTFE products.
As a result of the class action lawsuits and community settlement with DuPont, three epidemiologists conducted research on populations around chemical plants affected by PFOA at a greater rate than in the general population. The study concluded that there may be a link between PFOA exposure and six health outcomes: kidney cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, hypercholesterolemia (high cholesterol), and pregnancy induced hypertension.
The main producer of PFOS, the 3M Company (known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company from 1902 to 2002), initiated a production shutdown in 2002 in response to concerns expressed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Eight other companies agreed to gradually eliminate chemical production by 2015.
By 2014, the EPA has listed PFOA (free acid) and PFOS (potassium salts) as emerging contaminants:
PFOA and PFOS are highly persistent in the environment and resistant to typical environmental degradation processes. [They] are widely distributed at higher trophic levels and are found in soil, air and ground water in locations throughout the United States. Potential toxicity, mobility, and bioaccumulation of PFOS and PFOA poses potential adverse effects on the environment and human health.
Video Perfluorooctanoic acid
History
3M (later the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) began producing PFOA with electrochemical fluorination in 1947. Beginning in 1951, DuPont purchased PFOA from 3M for use in the manufacture of commercial-branded fluoropolymers as Teflon, but DuPont internally refers to the material as C8.
In the fall of 2000, lawyer Rob Bilott, a partner at Taft Stettinius & amp; Hollister, won a court order that forced DuPont to share all documents related to PFOA. It includes 110,000 files, consisting of secret studies and reports conducted by DuPont scientists for decades. In 1993, DuPont understood that "PFOA causes testicular cancer, pancreas and liver tumors in laboratory animals" and companies are beginning to investigate alternatives. However, products manufactured with PFOA are an integral part of DuPont's revenue, $ 1 billion in annual profits, they choose to continue using PFOA. Billott knows that "3M and DuPont have been doing secret medical research on PFOA for more than four decades," and in 1961 DuPont noticed hepatomegaly in mice given PFOA.
In 1968, organofluorine content was detected in the blood serum of consumers, and in 1976 it was suggested to be PFOA or related compounds such as PFOS.
Bilott discloses how DuPont has consciously polluted water with PFOA in Parkersburg, West Virginia since the 1980s. In the 1980s and 1990s, researchers investigated PFOA toxicity.
In 1999, the EPA ordered the company to check the effects of perfluorinated chemicals after receiving data on global distribution and PFOS toxicity. For this reason, and EPA pressure, in May 2000, 3M announced the suspension of production of PFOA, PFOS, and PFOS related products - the company's top-selling repellent. 3M states that they will make the same decision regardless of EPA pressure.
Due to the 3M phaseout, in 2002, DuPont built its own plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina to produce chemicals. Chemicals have received attention due to litigation from the PFOA contaminated community around the Washington Works DuPont facility in Washington, West Virginia, along with the EPA focus. Research on PFOA has demonstrated ubiquity, animal-based toxicity, and some associations with human health parameters and potential health effects. In addition, advances in analytical chemistry in recent years have enabled the detection of low routine and sub-parts per billion PFOA levels in a variety of substances. In 2013, Gore-Tex eliminates the use of PFOA in the manufacture of weatherproof functional fabrics.
For his work on exposure to contamination, lawyer Rob Bilott received The Right Livelihood Award in 2017. The battle with DuPont is featured in a documentary entitled The Devil We Know, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018.
Maps Perfluorooctanoic acid
Synthesis
PFOA has two major synthesis routes, electrochemical fluorination (ECF) and telomerization. The equation below represents the ECF route with hydrofluoric acid reacting with octanoyl chloride, octanoyl chloride.
The equation above shows some ECF products. The target product, F (CF 2 ) 7 COF (not represented) produced only 10-15% of the total product, while the main product perfluorinated cyclic ether isomer, including FC-75. To produce PFOA, perfluorinated acid fluoride is hydrolyzed. The PFOA formed by this method is a straight chain mixture (78%), branched (13%), and internal branched (9%), as the ECF reorganizes the carbon "tail" of hydrochloric acid. ECF also produces waste production. 3M synthesizes ECF PFOA in their Grove Cottage, MN facility from 1947 to 2002 and is the largest producer in the world. ECF production continues on a smaller scale in Europe and Asia.
PFOA is also synthesized by telomerization shown below, where telogen is an organoiodin compound and the taxa is an unsaturated tetrafluoroethylene.
- C 2 F 5 I 3 C 2 F 4 -> C 2 F 5 (C 2 F 4 ) 3 I
The product is oxidized by SO 3 to form PFOA. Under reaction conditions, the telomeres are formed with varying length chains containing even numbered carbon atoms, since most products contain two to six tetrafluoroethylen taxogens. After oxidation, distillation is used to separate PFOA from other perfluorinated carboxylic acids. PFOA telomerization synthesis is pioneered by DuPont, and is not suitable for laboratories. The pFOA formed by telomerization is completely linear, in contrast to the mixture of structures formed by ECF.
Apps
PFOA has widespread applications. In 1976, PFOA was reported as a repellent of water and oil "in fabrics and leather and in the production of floor wax and wax paper"; However, it is believed that paper is no longer treated with perfluorinated compounds, but with fluorotelomers with PFOA less than 0.1%. This compound is also used in "insulators for power cables, planar etchings of fused silica", fire fighting foam, and outerwear. As a protonated species, the form of PFOA acid is the most widely used perfluorocarboxylic acid as a reactive intermediate in the production of fluoroacrylic ester.
As salt, its dominant use is as emulsifier for emulsion polymerization of fluoropolymers such as PTFE, polyvinylidene fluoride, and fluoroelastomers. For this use, 3M subsidiary Dyneon has a replacement emulsifer even though DuPont states PFOA is an "essential processing aid". PFOA is used in Gore-Tex production because it is PTFE-based. In PTFE processing, PFOA is in aqueous solution and forms micelles containing tetrafluoroethylene and a growing polymer. PFOA can be used to stabilize fluoropolymer and fluoroelastomer suspension before further industrial processing and in ion-coupled phase ion-exchange chromatography can act as an extraction agent. PFOA also finds usefulness in electronic products and as an industry fluorosurfactant.
In the 2009 EPA study of 116 products, purchased between March 2007 and May 2008 and found to contain at least 0.01% of the weight fluorine, PFOA concentrations were determined. The concentrations shown below range from undetectable, or ND, (with detection limits in brackets) to 6750 with concentrations in the PFOA nanogram per gram of sample (parts per billion) unless otherwise indicated.
Properties
The "head" carboxylate of PFOA is hydrophilic while the fluorocarbon tail is hydrophobic and lipophobic. "Tails" are hydrophobic because they become non-polar and lipophobic because fluorocarbons are less susceptible to the power of London dispersion than hydrocarbons. PFOA is the ideal surfactant because it can lower the surface water tension more than the hydrocarbon surfactant while having remarkable stability due to the double carbon-fluorine bond. PFOA stability is desirable for industry but is a cause of environmental concern. PFOA is resistant to degradation by natural processes such as metabolism, hydrolysis, photolysis, or biodegradation that keeps it indefinitely in the environment.
PFOA is found in environmental and biological fluids as perfluorooctanoate anions. PFOA is absorbed from consumption and can penetrate the skin. Oxygen in PFOA is responsible for how to bind proteins with fatty acids or hormone substrates such as serum albumin, liver fatty acid binding proteins, and PPAR nuclear receptors? and possibly CAR. In animals, PFOA mainly exists in the liver, blood, and kidneys. PFOA does not accumulate in fatty tissue, unlike organic pollutants organic organohalogen. In humans, PFOA has an average elimination half-life of about 3 years. Because of this long half-life, PFOA has the potential to become bioaccumulated.
Global events and resources
PFOA pollutes every continent. PFOA has been detected in the central Pacific Ocean at low portions per quadrillion range, and at low parts per trilion (ppt) level in coastal waters. Due to the nature of PFOA surfactants, it has been found to concentrate in the upper layers of seawater. PFOA is widely detectable on the surface of the water, and is present in many species of mammals, fish, and birds. PFOA is present in the blood or vital organs of Atlantic salmon, swordfish, striped belly, gray seal, common cormorant, Alaskan polar bear, brown pelicans, sea turtles, sea eagles, Midwestern bald eagles, California sea lions and Laysan sea eagles on Sand Island, a wildlife reserve in Midway Atoll, in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, about halfway between North America and Asia. However, wildlife has much less PFOA than humans, unlike PFOS and other more perfluorinated carboxylic acids; in wild animals, PFOA is not bioaccumulative like older perfluorinated carboxylic acids.
Most industrialized countries have average PFOA serum blood levels ranging from 2 to 8 parts per billion; The highest consumer sub-population identified is in Korea - with about 60 parts per billion. In Peru, Vietnam, and serum blood levels of Afghanistan have been recorded under one part per billion. In 2003-2004, 99.7% of Americans had detectable PFOA in their serum averaging about 4 parts per billion, and the concentration of PFOA in US serum has decreased 25% in recent years. Despite the decrease in PFOA, the increasingly increasing PFNA carboxylic acid in the blood of US consumers.
In 2016, the Environmental Working Group published an EPA data analysis, and reported that unsafe PFOA and PFOS levels are found in public water systems serving 5.2 million people in the US. This analysis is based on monitoring reports submitted to the EPA by 52 water systems in 19 states and two regions.
Industry sources
PFOA is released directly from the industry site. For example, estimates for the DuPont Washington Works facility were total PFOA emissions of 80,000 pounds (lbs) in 2000 and 1,700 pounds in 2004. A 2006 study, with two of the four DuPont authors, estimated about 80% of the history of perfluorocarboxylate emissions released into environment from the manufacture and use of fluoropolymers. PFOA can be measured in water from industrial sites other than the fluorochemical plant. PFOA has also been detected in emissions from the carpet, paper and electronics industries. The most important sources of emissions are carpet and textile protection products, as well as fire foam.
Precursors
PFOA can be formed as a breaking product of various precursor molecules. In fact, the main product of the fluorotelomer industry, the fluorotelomer-based polymer, has been shown to decrease to form PFOA and related compounds, with half-life time decades, both biotically and with simple abiotic reactions with water. It has been argued that fluorotelomer-based polymers that have been produced may be a major source of PFOA globally over the next few decades. Other precursors that decrease to PFOA include 8: 2 fluorotelomers of alcohol (F (CF 2 ) 8 CH 2 CH 2 OH), polyfluoroalkyl phosphate (PAPS) surfactant, and possibly N -EtFOSE alcohol (F (CF 2 ) 8 SO 2 N (Et) CH 2 CH 2 OH). When PTFE is degraded by heat (pyrolysis) can form PFOA as a minor product. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has listed 615 chemicals that have the potential to decompose to perfluorocarboxylic acid (PFCA) including PFOA. However, not all 615 have the potential to break down to form PFOA.
The majority of wastewater treatment plants (IPAL) that have been tested generate more PFOA than inputs, and this increase in output has been linked to fluorotelomeric alcohol biodegradation. The current precursor concerns of PFOAs are fluorotelomer-based polymers; fluorotelomeric alcohols attached to the hydrocarbon backbone through the ester relationship may be released and free to break down into PFOA.
Resources to people
Food, drinking water, outdoor air, indoor air, dust, and food packaging are all involved as a source of PFOA for people. However, it is unclear which exposure routes dominate due to data gaps. When water is the source, the blood level is about 100 times higher than the drinking water level.
People living in contaminated PFOA areas around the Washington Works DuPont facility are known to have higher levels of PFOA in their blood from drinking water. The highest PFOA levels in drinking water were found in the Little Hocking water system, with an average concentration of 3.55 parts per billion during 2002-2005. Individuals who drink more tap water, eat local fruits and vegetables, or eat local meat, all associated with having higher PFOA levels. Residents who use carbon water filter systems have lower PFOA levels.
Food contact surface
PFOA is also formed as an undesirable byproduct in the production of fluorotelomers and is present in finished goods treated with fluorotelomers, including those intended for food contact. Fluorotelomers are applied to food contact paper because they are lipophobic: they prevent the oil from soaking into the paper from fatty foods. Also, fluorothomome can be metabolized to PFOA. In the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) study, lipophobic fluorophage paper based coatings (which can be applied to food contact paper in the 0.4% concentration range) are found to contain 88,000-160,000 parts per billion of PFOA, while microwave popcorn bags contain 6-290 parts per billion PFOA. Toxicologists estimate that microwave popcorn can reach about 20% of the measured PFOA levels in individuals who consume 10 bags a year if 1% of fluorothelium is metabolized to PFOA.
In 2008 when news began to raise concerns about PFOA in microwave popcorn Dan Turner, head of DuPont's global public relations, said, "I am presenting microwave popcorn for my three-year-old son." Five years later, journalist Peter Laufer wrote to Turner to ask if his son was still eating microwave popcorn. "I will not comment on such personal questions," Turner replied.
Fluorotelomer coatings are used in fast food wrappers, candy wrappers, and pizza liner boxes. PAPS, a type of fluorotelomer paper coating, and PFOA precursors, are also used in food contact papers.
Although DuPont asserts that "Cookware coated with DuPont Teflon non-stick coating does not contain PFOA", PFOA residues are also detected in completed PTFE products including PTFE cookware (4-75 parts per billion). However, PFOA levels range from undetectable (& lt; 1.5) to 4.3 parts per billion in the newer study. Also, heated non-stick cookware - which must evaporate PFOA; Unfreated PTFE products, such as PTFE sealant ribbons, have a higher (1800 parts per billion) detectable rate. Overall, PTFE cookware is considered an insignificant exposure path to PFOA.
Potential path: sludge to food
PFOA and PFOS are detected at "very high" (parts per million) level in agricultural fields to graze beef cattle and crops around Decatur, AL. Approximately 5,000 acres of land were fertilized with "processed urban slurries, or biosolids". PFOA is also detected in the fodder grass that grows in this soil and the blood of cows that feed on this grass. The water treatment plant receives the process of wastewater from a nearby perfluorochemical manufacturing plant. 3M says they manage their own waste, but Daikin America "discharges process wastewater to municipal sewage treatment plants". If traced to the flesh, it will be the first time perfluorochemical traced from the mud to the food. However, the USDA reported - with a detection limit of 20 parts per billion - undetectable levels for PFOA and PFOS in cow muscle tissue.
Regulatory status
Drink water and products
In the United States there is no federal drinking water standard for PFOA or PFOS by the end of 2017. The EPA began requiring public water systems to monitor PFOA and PFOS by 2012, and publish water health advice, which is a non-regulatory technical document, by 2016 Lifelong health advisers and health effects documents help federal, state, tribal, and local officials and managers of drinking water systems in protecting public health when these chemicals are present in drinking water. The concentration levels of PFOS and PFOA in which adverse health effects not anticipated occurred during the exposure period were 0.07 ppb (70 ppt). The EPA has not yet announced whether to develop the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for these contaminants.
In November 2017, the State of New Jersey announced plans to develop its own drinking water standards for PFOA and PFNA. These standards - 14 ppt for PFOA and 13 ppt for PFNA - will be the most stringent regulatory standards in the country.
Using information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act request, in May 2018 it was found that January 2018 emails between the EPA, the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services indicated a decision made to withhold the results of studies on PFOS and PFOA conducted by the Toxic Substances and Registry of Disease planned for publication. This study shows that they endanger human health at a much lower rate than the EPA previously called safe.
California and food packaging
Efforts to regulate PFOA in food packaging took place in the US state of California in 2008. A bill, sponsored by State Senator Ellen Corbett and the Environmental Working Group, was ratified at home and the senate that would ban PFOA, PFOS, and seven or more compounds carbon phosphorous linked in food packaging beginning in 2010, but the bill was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. The bill will affect fluorochemical producers outside the state. Schwarzenegger said the compound should be reviewed by a newly established and more comprehensive country program.
Fluorotelomers
Fluorotelomer-based products have been shown to decrease to PFOA for decades; this study may cause EPA to require DuPont and others to redefine products worth more than $ 1 billion.
Health issues
Toxicological data
PFOAs are carcinogens, liver toxins, developmental toxins, and immune system toxins, and also provide hormonal effects including changes in thyroid hormone levels. Animal studies have shown developmental toxicity from reduced birth size, delayed physical development, endocrine disorders, and neonatal mortality. PFOA alters lipid metabolism. This is a PPAR agonist? and is a peroxisome proliferator in rodents that contribute to well-understood forms of oxidative stress. Humans are considered less susceptible to peroxisome proliferation than rodents. However, PFOA has been found to be a liver carcinogen in rainbow trout through potential estrogenic mechanisms, which may be more relevant to humans.
The EPA review noted that PFOAs have not been "mutagenic in evidence". PFOA has been described as a member of the classic "non-genotoxic carcinogen" group. However, a provisional German assessment noted that a 2005 study found PFOA to be genotoxic through the pathway of peroxisome proliferation that produced oxygen radicals in HepG2 cells, and a 2006 study showed induction and suppression of various genes; Therefore, it is stated that the genotoxic potential (and thus carcinogenic) indirectly from PFOA can not be dismissed. Criteria have been proposed that would allow PFOA, and other perfluorinated compounds, to be classified as "weak non-specific genotoxic". Human data
The level of PFOA exposure in humans varies greatly. While an average American may have 3 or 4 parts per billion of PFOA present in their blood serum, those exposed to PFOA exposure have had a blood serum level of more than 100,000 parts per billion (100 parts per million or 0.01% ) recorded. In a study of individuals living around the Washington Works DuPont plant, those with no occupational exposure had an average blood serum level of 329 parts per billion while their median occupational exposure was 775 parts per billion. While no PFOA in humans is legally recognized as dangerous, DuPont is "not satisfied" with data showing their Chinese workers collect an average of about 2,250 parts per billion of PFOA in their blood from an initial average of about 50 parts per billion less. from the previous year.
By the end of 2012, scientists at Emory University compared the health risks to workers at the DuPont chemical plant in West Virginia with high PFOA exposure to the same disease risks to other regional DuPont plant workers and in the US population. Compared to other DuPont workers, workers at the high PFOA plant are at about three times the risk of dying of mesothelioma or chronic kidney disease, and about twice the risk of dying from diabetes mellitus. Workers are also at high risk for kidney cancer and non-cancer kidney disease. In rodents, PFOA concentrates in the kidneys.
Consumer
A single cross-sectional study on consumers has been published and notes several associations. PFOA serum blood levels were associated with increased time for pregnancy - or "infertility" - in a 2009 study. PFOA exposure was associated with decreased cement quality, elevated serum alanine aminotransferase levels, and increased incidence of thyroid disease. In a 2003-2004 US sample study, higher total cholesterol levels (9.8 milligrams per deciliter) were observed when the highest quartile compared with the lowest. Along with other related compounds, PFOA exposure was associated with an increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the study of US children aged 12-15. In a paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Environmental Epidemiology Society 2009, PFOA appears to act as an endocrine disrupter by potential mechanisms on breast ripening in young girls. The C8 Science Panel status report records the relationship between exposure to girls and the onset of puberty.
PFOA has been associated with signs of reduced fetal growth including low birth weight. However, other studies have not yet replicated low birth weight findings including studies on communities exposed to DuPont. Exposure to PFOA in the general Danish population is not associated with an increased risk of prostate, bladder, pancreatic, or liver cancer. Maternal PFOA levels are not associated with an increased risk of hospitalization due to infectious disease, behavioral and motor coordination problems, or delays in achieving developmental milestones.
Employees and communities affected by DuPont
In 2010, three members of the C8 Science Panel published a review of epidemiological evidence on PFOA exposure in the Environmental Health Perspective . Evidence is insufficient to conclude PFOA causes adverse health effects in humans, but consistent evidence exists on associations with high cholesterol and gout. Whether this potential effect leads to an increase in cardiovascular disease is unknown. Further data on the 69,030 member cohort being studied by the panel is scheduled to be released until 2012. A 2011 epidemiological study suggests a possible link between PFOA and kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, pre-eclampsia. and ulcerative colitis.
Facial birth defects, observed effects on mouse offspring, occurred in children of two of the seven female employees of DuPont from the Washington Works facility from 1979 to 1981. Bucky Bailey was one of the affected individuals; however, DuPont did not accept what responsibility even. of PFOA toxicity. While 3M sent DuPont results from studies showing birth defects in mice given PFOA and DuPont transferring women out of the Teflon production unit, subsequent animal testing led DuPont to conclude there was no risk of reproduction in women, and they returned to production. unit. However, data released in March 2009 about communities around the Washington Works DuPont plant show "a simple, incorrect indication of an increased risk... above the 90th percentile... based on 12 cases in the top category" "Suggest possible associations" between PFOA exposure and birth defects.
Legal action
Industrial and legal actions
DuPont has been using PFOA for more than 50 years at its plant at Washington Works. The local population sued DuPont in August 2001 and claimed DuPont to release PFOA beyond their community guidelines of 1 part per billion that resulted in lower property values ​​and an increased risk of disease. This class is certified by the Wood Circuit Court Judge, George W. Hill. As part of the settlement, DuPont pays for blood tests and health surveys of residents who are believed to be affected. Participants totaled 69,030 in the study, to be reviewed by three epidemiologists - the C8 Science Panel - to determine whether any health effects were likely to result from exposure.
On December 13, 2005, DuPont announced the settlement with the EPA where DuPont would pay a fine of US $ 10.25 million and an additional US $ 6.25 million for two additional environmental projects without recognition of liability.
On September 30, 2008, Supreme Court Justice Joseph R. Goodwin of the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia refused PFOA-affected Parkersburg population class certification from the DuPont facility because they did not "indicate the common individual injuries needed to pass a class lawsuit." On September 28, 2009, Judge Goodwin dismissed the claim of the resident except for medical monitoring. In 2015, more than three thousand plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against DuPont.
US. federal government action
In 2002, a panel of toxicologists, including some from the EPA, proposed a rate of 150 ppb for drinking water in the PFOA contaminated area around the Washington Works DuPont plant. This level is much higher than the known environmental concentration.
In July 2004, the EPA filed a lawsuit against DuPont on allegations of "widespread contamination" from PFOA near Parkersburg, West Virginia plant "at a rate that exceeds the corporate community exposure guidelines"; The lawsuit also alleges that "DuPont has - over 20 years - repeatedly failed to transmit information on adverse effects (in particular, information on liver enzyme changes and birth defects in female Parkersburg female offspring)."
In October 2005, a USFDA study published discloses the precursor chemicals of PFOA and PFOA in the contacts of PTFE foods and products.
On January 25, 2006, the EPA announced a voluntary program with several chemical companies to reduce PFOA and PFOA precursor emissions by 2015.
On February 15, 2005, the EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) voted to recommend that PFOA be regarded as a "possibility of human carcinogens".
On May 26, 2006, EPA's SAB delivered a letter to Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. Three quarters of the counselors argue that the descriptors "most likely to be carcinogenic" are justified, contrary to the EPA's own PFOA explanation of "suggestive evidence of carcinogenicity, but not enough to assess human carcinogenic potential".
On 21 November 2006, the EPA ordered DuPont to offer alternative drinking water or care for public or private water users living near the Washington Works DuPont plant in West Virginia (and in Ohio), if the level of PFOA detected in drinking water is equal to or more large from 0.5 parts per billion. This measure sharply lowered the previous level of action from the 150 parts per billion set up in March 2002.
According to May 23, 2007, Environmental Science & amp; Technology Articles online, the US Food and Drug Administration's research on food contact papers as a potential source of PFOA for humans is ongoing.
In November 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published data on PFOA concentrations comparing samples from 1999 to 2000 vs. 2003-2004 NHANES.
On January 15, 2009, the EPA set a temporary health level of 0.4 ppb in drinking water.
On May 19, 2016, the EPA lowered the water health advisory level to 0.07 ppb for PFOA and PFOS.
US. state government action
In 2007, the New Jersey Environmental Protection Department (NJDEP) issued an initial healthcare-based level of 0.04 ppb in drinking water, as PFOA was found at "an increased level in drinking water systems near the large Chambers Works DuPont chemical plant". In November 2017 NJDEP announced plans to develop drinking water standards regulations for PFOA and PFNA, in the absence of federal standards.
In 2007, the Minnesota Department of Health lowered its Health-Based Value for PFOA in drinking water from 1.0 ppb to 0.5 ppb, where "the source is industrial waste stockpiled from a 3M manufacturing plant".
European Actions
PFOA contaminated waste is put into the soil and spreading on farmland in Germany, causing the contamination of PFOA drinking water up to 0,519 parts per billion. The German Federal Environmental Agency issued guidelines for the amount of concentrations of PFOA and PFOS in drinking water: 0.1 parts per billion for precautions and 0.3 parts per billion for the threshold. The population was found to have an increase of 6-8 PFOA serum levels on unexposed Germans, with mean PFOA concentrations in the range of 22-27 parts per billion. A panel of experts concludes that "concentrations are considered too low to cause adverse health effects on exposed populations".
In the Netherlands, following a question by members of Parliament, the Ministry of the Environment ordered a study of the potential exposure of PFOA to people living around the DuPont plant in Dordrecht. The report was published in March 2016 and concluded that "before 2002 the population was exposed to PFOA levels where health effects can not be ruled out". As a result, the government commissioned some further research, including blood tests and measurements in drinking water.
Action Australia
On 10 August 2016, Australia's litigation adviser IMF Bentham announced an agreement to fund a class action led by Gadens law firm against the Australian Department of Defense for economic losses for homeowners, fishermen and farmers resulting from the use of aqueous film-forming foam (containing PFOA) at RAAF Base Williamtown.
See also
- Weinberg Group
- Ohio River Pollution
References
External links
- EPA: PFOA and Fluorotelomer pages
- EPA: Link to related programs and studies
- Sustained Outrage Blog - C8 (PFOA) Category published by Charleston Gazette List
- Internet Movie List (IMDB) Devils We Know
- Callie Lyons blog on C8, author of Stain-Resistant, Anti-Stable, Water Resistant, and Deadly: Hidden Dangers C8
- Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA); Fluorinated Telomers enforces approval development approval
- Substances dissolved and used in Sweden
- Chain of Contamination: The Food Link, Perfluorinated Chemicals (PFCs) Incl. PFOS & amp; PFOA
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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