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REGULATORY ACTIONS - COMMUNITY RIGHT TO KNOW - PERFLUORINATED COMPOUNDS (PFCS)
Impact/Purpose:
The overall goal of this work is to provide support to OPPTS in evaluating potential environmental and human health problems associated with release of PFCs into the environment. Specific research objectives include the following.
o Development and application of a multi-compound method for the collection, extraction, and analysis of PFCs in raw and finished water.
o Development and application of a multi-compound method for the collection, extraction, and analysis of PFCs in soil.
o Development and application of a method for the extraction and analysis of PFCs in human blood serum.
o Development and application of methods to support NHEERL toxicology studies that will inform the risk assessment process.
Description:
Increasing worldwide attention is being focused on a group of persistent organic pollutants known as the perfluorinated compounds (PFCs). This class of compounds includes the now well known perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), but it also includes a large number of other structurally related compounds. Concern is growing about this class of compounds as studies indicate that they are toxic, persistent, and bioaccumulative. Moreover, while the vast majority of individuals living in the industrial world have measurable body burdens of PFCs, there is very little information about how exposure to these compounds occurs.
As research in this area is just starting, the most pressing current need is for the development of collection and analysis methods for the matrices that are most likely to be involved with human exposures. Once sensitive multi-compound methods have been developed for water, soils and air, surveys can be conducted to characterize the levels of the various PFCs in these different matrices. With this information further studies can be put in place to help prioritize and quantify the various potential routes of PFC exposure.
Another important aspect of this issue is the transformation and fate of these materials in environmental and biological systems. For example, many of the most widely used PFCs are volatile and subject to metabolism/degradation that leads to the formation of the persistent sulfonate and carboxylic acid forms of these materials. The most fundamental aspects of this issue remain largely undescribed at this time. To understand the global transport of the PFCs and their distribution in the environment, it is crucial to describe these basic metabolic/physical processes.
Another portion of the proposed research involves support for physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) studies which will be used for the development of risk models for PFOA and other priority PFCs. Basic methods to measure these compounds in various animal tissues need to be developed, assessed, and applied on a routine basis to support these assessments.
The research involved in this task will provide the basic methods and data to characterize environmental distributions of the PFCs, the transport and transformation of these compounds in the environment, and the disposition of the PFCs in animal models used in the risk assessment process. All of this basic research will be provided to OPPT to help estimate concentrations of PFCs in the environment, to characterize human exposures, and to establish the risks associated with these exposures.