in Environmental Exposures and Health
Perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs)
We are also investigating exposure and health effects of PFCs (the chemistry is quite complicated, leading to various related names: perfluorinated compounds, polyfluorinated alkyl compounds, etc). This class of compounds are used widely in commercial and industrial applications as surfactants, paper and textile coatings, and in food packaging. A number of PFCs are commonly found in human serum, particularly PFOS and PFOA (also called 'C8')
Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS)
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)
Exposure to PFCs is poorly understood, although both the indoor environment and diet are suspected. Contamination of food might occur via both bioaccumulation and transfer from food packaging. It has been hypothesized that one source of PFCs found in human serum are precursor compounds that are degraded or metabolized into the persistent compounds that we observe.
Projects at BUSPH
- Health effects: We recently published our first paper on potential health effects of PFCs, Nelson et al. 2009. Using data from the CDC's extraordinarily valuable National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we found an association between several PFCs and cholesterol in the blood of the general US population.
- West Virginia/Ohio: An area along the WV/OH border was contaminated by PFOA from a manufacturing facility. Dr. Veronica Vieira heads up the BUSPH part of the research on exposure and health effects in this community, in collaboration with the C8 Science Panel. Exposure is principally via drinking water, presumably a consequence of the surfactant properties of PFOA that make it far more soluble in water that typical POPs.
- Exposure: Stay tuned!
- 2 November 2009: New article in Environmental Health Perspectives by doctoral student Jessica Nelson, Elizabeth Hatch and Tom Webster on the association between perfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs) and cholesterol in the general US population. It received extensive press coverage, including an interview of Jessica Nelson on NPR's "Living on Earth."
Publications
- Nelson JW, Hatch EE, Webster TF. Exposure to Polyfluoroalkyl Chemicals and Cholesterol, Body Weight, and Insulin Resistance in the General U.S. Population. Environ Health Perspect. In press. [Online 2 November 2009]. The full text is freely available doi:10.1289/ehp.0901165.
- Steenland K, Jin C, MacNeil J, Lally C, Ducatman A, Vieira V, Fletcher T. Predictors of PFOA Levels in a Community Surrounding a Chemical Plant. Environ Health Perspect 2009; 117(7):1083-1088. The full text is freely available here.
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