Back to Search
Start Over
Key scientific issues in developing drinking water guidelines for perfluoroalkyl acids: Contaminants of emerging concern
- Source :
- PLoS Biology, PLoS Biology, Vol 15, Iss 12, p e2002855 (2017)
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2017.
-
Abstract
- Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs), a group of synthetic organic chemicals with industrial and commercial uses, are of current concern because of increasing awareness of their presence in drinking water and their potential to cause adverse health effects. PFAAs are distinctive among persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) contaminants because they are water soluble and do not break down in the environment. This commentary discusses scientific and risk assessment issues that impact the development of drinking water guidelines for PFAAs, including choice of toxicological endpoints, uncertainty factors, and exposure assumptions used as their basis. In experimental animals, PFAAs cause toxicity to the liver, the immune, endocrine, and male reproductive systems, and the developing fetus and neonate. Low-dose effects include persistent delays in mammary gland development (perfluorooctanoic acid; PFOA) and suppression of immune response (perfluorooctane sulfonate; PFOS). In humans, even general population level exposures to some PFAAs are associated with health effects such as increased serum lipids and liver enzymes, decreased vaccine response, and decreased birth weight. Ongoing exposures to even relatively low drinking water concentrations of long-chain PFAAs substantially increase human body burdens, which remain elevated for many years after exposure ends. Notably, infants are a sensitive subpopulation for PFAA's developmental effects and receive higher exposures than adults from the same drinking water source. This information, as well as emerging data from future studies, should be considered in the development of health-protective and scientifically sound guidelines for PFAAs in drinking water.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Physiology
Organogenesis
010501 environmental sciences
Toxicology
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
01 natural sciences
Mammary Gland Development
Mammary gland development
chemistry.chemical_compound
Blood serum
Natural Resources
Contaminants
Medicine and Health Sciences
Biology (General)
Water pollution
Mammals
Fluorocarbons
Health Policy
General Neuroscience
Eukaryota
Contamination
Pollution
Body Fluids
Blood
Perspective
Vertebrates
Physical Sciences
Toxicity
Water Resources
Engineering and Technology
Perfluorooctanoic acid
Anatomy
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Risk assessment
Environmental Engineering
QH301-705.5
Materials Science
Guidelines as Topic
Biology
Rodents
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
03 medical and health sciences
Environmental health
Animals
Humans
Materials by Attribute
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
General Immunology and Microbiology
Drinking Water
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Water Pollution
Organisms
Biology and Life Sciences
Blood Serum
United States
Gland Development
Perfluorooctane
030104 developmental biology
chemistry
Amniotes
Organism Development
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Developmental Biology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15457885
- Volume :
- 15
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLOS Biology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....4a4d96caf2c3d413d79798fc3d7317e7