How Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFOS/PFOA) Adversely Affect Human Health
In 1938, research chemist Dr. Roy J. Plunkett accidentally discovered Teflon® as a result of a failed experiment to create a new refrigerator coolant for E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont). After ten years of research, Dupont introduced the heat-resistant, nonstick polytetrafluoroethylene resin to the general population and by the time of its inventor’s death it would provide the coating for three-quarters of the pots and pans sold in the United States.
In 1985, when Plunkett was inducted into the National Inventors’ Hall of Fame, he stated that he was proud of his invention that “has been of great personal benefit to people — not just indirectly, but directly to real people whom I know.” In his 1994 obituary, the New York Times praised the scientist who died of cancer at age 83 for “not only changing the way Americans cook” but also helping “develop a multibillion-dollar plastics industry.”
More than two decades later, however, the same news agency would publish an in-depth feature story titled “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare,” chronicling the eight-year journey of corporate defense attorney Rob Bilott who exposed a decades-long history of the chemical pollutant, Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA).
According to documents unwittingly supplied by Dupont, the toxicity and risks to human and animal health had long been known, not only by the Teflon manufacturer, but also by 3M Company.
Up until 2000, 3M had manufactured the chemical commonly referred to as C8, as well as Perfluorooctanesulfonic Acid (PFOS), the key ingredient in the fabric protector and stain repellant, Scotchgard™, and the aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) used by firefighters and found in a wide range of personal care products. In fact, for more than four decades both organizations had been conducting sequestered medical studies on the effects of PFOA and PFOS toxins, which belong to a class of poly- and perfluoroalkyl man-made chemicals collectively known as perfluoroalkyl sulfonates (PFAS).
By the mid-1970s, tests revealed that PFOA, in particular, not only increased the size of the liver in rabbits and rats but also was resistant to degradation and showed up in high concentrations in the blood of factory workers at Washington Works, DuPont’s second largest manufacturing facility in the world.
In 1984 DuPont became aware but did not disclose that PFOA had infiltrated the local water supply near the plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
Thanks in large part to Bilott’s research and a subsequent 2002 investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) into the chemical’s toxicity, far more facts became known. Based on information Bilott provided to the EPA concerning drinking water tainted with PFOA in six water districts and dozens of private wells, the chemical was classified as a threat to human health. In 2005, the EPA fined DuPont a miniscule $16.5 million for violating the Toxic Substances Control Act by withholding the dangers of PFOA and that same year a panel of scientists convened to determine its health effects in residents of communities located in the Mid-Ohio Valley who had been drinking the contaminated water since the 1950s. After seven years of research, the C8 Science Panel released a Probable Links Report establishing the connection between PFOA and the following human health conditions:
- Heart disease
- Kidney disease
- Liver disease
- Osteoarthritis
- Parkinson’s disease
- Autoimmune disease
- Infectious diseases
- Neurodevelopmental disorders in children
- Respiratory disease
- Stroke
- Thyroid disease
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- Birth defects
- Pregnancy-induced hypertension and preeclampsia
- Miscarriage and stillbirths
- Preterm birth and low birth weight
Officials at DuPont assured the phase-out of C8 by the end of 2015, however, the company had already developed new replacement chemicals from the PFAS class of substances, which are still found in a wide variety of popular and commonly used products today, including shampoos, electronics, clothing, pizza boxes and other food containers among other things.
Alarmed and outraged, more than 200 scientists representing 38 nations came together to sign the Madrid Statement, which was published in the May 2015 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives and warns the general public about the harmful effects from both old and newly introduced PFAS chemicals. The document lists the many adverse health risks, which include the following:
- Liver toxicity
- Disruption of lipid metabolism and the immune and endocrine systems
- Adverse neurobehavioral effects
- Neonatal toxicity and death
- Tumors in multiple organ systems
- Testicular and kidney cancers
- Liver malfunction
- Hypothyroidism
- High cholesterol
- Ulcerative colitis
- Reduced birth weight and size
- Obesity
- Decreased immune response to vaccines
- Reduced hormone levels and delayed puberty
Migrating via industrial processes, military and firefighting operations and consumer product use, PFAS toxins are released into the air, soil, ground and surface water, traveling in large diluted plumes through aquifers contaminating food supplies and infiltrating drinking water and monitoring wells. Spreading like tentacles, these plumes can be miles long, which make them difficult to detect, analyze and treat.
According to an August 2015 report by David Andrews, Senior Scientist with the Environmental Working Group, nationwide testing indicates that 6.5 million Americans in 27 states are drinking water tainted with PFOA. Detected in 94 public water systems—quite heavily in Southern California and Arizona—research confirms that PFOA and closely related PFAS chemicals—even at the tiniest doses—can cause cancer, birth defects and heart disease and weaken the immune system. An interactive map is included in the report to give readers information on where contamination has been detected.
Fortunately, new and highly specialized instruments such as LC-MS and LC-MS/MS have been developed to detect and analyze contaminants. The combination of liquid chromatography (LC) with mass spectrometry (MS), these tools have the increased sensitivity capabilities needed to gain more structural information on contaminants in the soil and groundwater. PFAS substances, however, are recalcitrant in the environment and require extreme conditions to initiate chemical transformation reactions. In fact, most chemical, biological and thermal in situ remediation techniques are ineffective, particularly in preventing the spread of plumes underground.
Top researchers and leading scientists from around the U.S. convened at the March 2016 Emerging Contaminants Summit in Westminster, Colorado, to address the mitigation of contaminants such as PFAS substances and share insights as well as preliminary results from on-going research in possible treatments. Highlighting pump-and-treat and ex situ techniques that use activated carbon filters on site, research suggests that these treatments may need to be in place for 10, 20 or, in rare instances, up to 100 years to successfully remediate groundwater contaminated with PFAS substances. In addition, pump-and-treat technologies do not address on-site risks associated with in surface soils.
Some in situ technologies, however, offer ways to quickly and effectively treat contaminated groundwater and prevent the spread of contaminated plumes. Through highly dispersible, fast-acting, sorption-based technology, which captures and concentrates contaminants within its structure, the groundbreaking products lasts for decades, pulling contaminants directly from groundwater.
While more research is needed on the real and long-term health risks associated with PFAS substances, it is quite clear that grave atrocities have been inflicted on unsuspecting populations around the globe in the past as well as the present.
Though the harmful effects cannot be reversed, bold new discoveries and environmental remediation techniques have at least been developed, offering hope and ensuring for a better, cleaner future. This requires tremendous courage, first to come forward and acknowledge who started the fire and then collaborate with likeminded courageous groups and individuals to end it.
