Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are man-made chemicals that contain at least one perfluoroalkyl moiety, [Formula: see text]. To date, over 4,000 unique PFASs have been used in technical applications and consumer products, and some of them have been detected globally in human and wildlife biomonitoring studies. Because of their extraordinary persistence, human and environmental exposure to PFASs will be a long-term source of concern. Some PFASs such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) have been investigated extensively and thus regulated, but for many other PFASs, knowledge about their current uses and hazards is still very limited or missing entirely. To address this problem and prepare an action plan for the assessment and management of PFASs in the coming years, a group of more than 50 international scientists and regulators held a two-day workshop in November, 2017. The group identified both the respective needs of and common goals shared by the scientific and the policy communities, made recommendations for cooperative actions, and outlined how the science-policy interface regarding PFASs can be strengthened using new approaches for assessing and managing highly persistent chemicals such as PFASs. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4158.

Air Quality Processes Research Section Environment and Climate Change Canada Toronto Canada

Beijing Key Laboratory of Emerging Organic Contaminants Control School of Environment POPs Research Center Tsinghua University Beijing China

Center for Health and Environmental Risk Research National Institute for Environmental Studies Tsukuba Japan

Chair of Ecological Systems Design Institute of Environmental Engineering ETH Zürich Zürich Switzerland

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs London UK

Department of Analytical Chemistry Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ Leipzig Germany

Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala Sweden

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Colorado School of Mines Golden Colorado USA

Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics McGill University Montreal Canada

Department of Environmental Exposure and Epidemiology Norwegian Institute of Public Health Oslo Norway

Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry Stockholm University Stockholm Sweden

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Brody School of Medicine East Carolina University Greenville North Carolina USA

Department of Public Health Environments and Society London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine London UK

Directorate General for Climate Action European Commission Brussels Belgium

Directorate General for Environment European Commission Brussels Belgium

Finnish Environment Institute Helsinki Finland

German Environment Agency Dessau Roßlau Germany

Hochschule Fresenius Idstein Germany

Industrial Chemicals Section Federal Office for the Environment Bern Switzerland

Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics ETH Zürich Zürich Switzerland

Integrated Environmental Assessments Programme European Environment Agency Copenhagen Denmark

IRSA CNR Water Research Institute National Research Council of Italy Brugherio Italy

Joint Research Centre European Commission Ispra Italy

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and U S Public Health Service Durham North Carolina USA

Norwegian Institute for Air Research FRAM High North Research Centre on Climate and the Environment Tromsø Norway

Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development Paris France

Research Center for Eco Environmental Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China

Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Safety and Environmental Technology Group Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering ETH Zürich Zürich Switzerland

Swedish Chemicals Agency Stockholm Sweden

United States Environmental Protection Agency Research Triangle Park North Carolina USA

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Banks RE, Smart BE, Tatlow JC. 1994. Organofluorine Chemistry. Banks R.E., Smart B.E., and Tatlow J.C., eds. Springer US:Boston, MA.

Blum A, Balan SA, Scheringer M, Trier X, Goldenman G, Cousins IT, et al. . 2015. The Madrid statement on poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). Environ Health Perspect 123(5):A107–A111, PMID: 25932614, 10.1289/ehp.1509934. PubMed DOI PMC

Borg D, Ivarsson J, Andersson A, Moore G. 2017. “Nordic Workshop on PFASs:Outcomes.” 10.6027/NA2017-913. DOI

Brendel S, Fetter É, Staude C, Vierke L, Biegel-Engler A. 2018. Short-chain perfluoroalkyl acids: environmental concerns and a regulatory strategy under REACH. Environ Sci Eur 30(1):9, PMID: 29527446, 10.1186/s12302-018-0134-4. PubMed DOI PMC

BRS Secretariat. 2017. The 16 New POPs. http://chm.pops.int/Portals/0/download.aspx?d=UNEP-POPS-PUB-Brochure-16NewPOPs-201706.English.pdf [accessed 8 February 2018].

BRS Secretariat. 2018. POPRC Recommendations for Listing Chemicals. http://chm.pops.int/Convention/POPsReviewCommittee/Chemicals/tabid/243/Default.aspx [accessed 25 January 2018].

Buck RC, Franklin J, Berger U, Conder JM, Cousins IT, de Voogt P, et al. . 2011. Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the environment: terminology, classification, and origins. Integr Environ Assess Manag 7(4):513–541, PMID: 21793199, 10.1002/ieam.258. PubMed DOI PMC

Cousins IT, Vestergren R, Wang Z, Scheringer M, McLachlan MS. 2016. The precautionary principle and chemicals management: the example of perfluoroalkyl acids in groundwater. Environ Int 94:331–340, PMID: 27337597, 10.1016/j.envint.2016.04.044. PubMed DOI

Fromme H, Wöckner M, Roscher E, Völkel W. 2017. ADONA and perfluoroalkylated substances in plasma samples of German blood donors living in South Germany. Int J Hyg Environ Health 220(2 Pt B):455–460, PMID: 28073630, 10.1016/j.ijheh.2016.12.014. PubMed DOI

Giesy JP, Kannan K. 2001. Global distribution of perfluorooctane sulfonate in wildlife. Environ Sci Technol 35(7):1339–1342, PMID: 11348064, 10.1021/es001834k. PubMed DOI

Gomis MI, Vestergren R, Borg D, Cousins IT. 2018. Comparing the toxic potency in vivo of long-chain perfluoroalkyl acids and fluorinated alternatives. Environ Int 113:1–9, PMID: 29421396, 10.1016/j.envint.2018.01.011. PubMed DOI

Gomis MI, Wang Z, Scheringer M, Cousins IT. 2015. A modeling assessment of the physicochemical properties and environmental fate of emerging and novel per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Sci Total Environ 505:981–991, PMID: 25461098, 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.10.062. PubMed DOI

Hansen KJ, Clemen LA, Ellefson ME, Johnson HO. 2001. Compound-specific, quantitative characterization of organic fluorochemicals in biological matrices. Environ Sci Technol 35(4):766–770, PMID: 11349290, 10.1021/es001489z. PubMed DOI

Kissa E. 2001. Fluorinated Surfactants and Repellents. 2nd ed Boca Raton, Florida:CRC Press.

Land M, de Wit CA, Bignert A, Cousins IT, Herzke D, Johansson JH, et al. . 2018. What is the effect of phasing out long-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances on the concentrations of perfluoroalkyl acids and their precursors in the environment? a systematic review. Environ Evid 7(1):4, 10.1186/s13750-017-0114-y. DOI

OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). 2018. Toward a New Comprehensive Global Database of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs): Summary Report on Updating the OECD 2007 List of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs). OECD Series on Risk Management No. 39. http://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=ENV-JM-MONO(2018)7&doclanguage=en [accessed 5 July 2018].

Prevedouros K, Cousins IT, Buck RC, Korzeniowski SH. 2006. Sources, fate and transport of perfluorocarboxylates. Environ Sci Technol 40(1):32–44, PMID: 16433330, 10.1021/es0512475. PubMed DOI

Scheringer M, Trier X, Cousins IT, de Voogt P, Fletcher T, Wang Z, et al. . 2014. Helsingør statement on poly- and perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs). Chemosphere 114:337–339, PMID: 24938172, 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2014.05.044. PubMed DOI

SETG (Safety and Environmental Technology Group). 2017. International Workshop Supporting the Dialogue Between Science and Policy on PFASs 9–10 November 2017 in Zürich, Switzerland – Thought Starter. https://www.ipcp.ch/news/international-workshop-supporting-the-dialogue-between-science-and-policy-on-pfass-at-eth-zurich [accessed 5 July 2018].

Shi Y, Vestergren R, Xu L, Zhou Z, Li C, Liang Y, et al. . 2016. Human exposure and elimination kinetics of chlorinated polyfluoroalkyl ether sulfonic acids (Cl-PFESAs). Environ Sci Technol 50(5):2396–2404, PMID: 26866980, 10.1021/acs.est.5b05849. PubMed DOI

Sun M, Arevalo E, Strynar M, Lindstrom A, Richardson M, Kearns B, et al. . 2016. Legacy and emerging perfluoroalkyl substances are important drinking water contaminants in the Cape Fear River Watershed of North Carolina. Environ Sci Technol Lett 3(12):415–419, 10.1021/acs.estlett.6b00398. DOI

UBA (Umweltbundesamt). 2016. International workshop for authorities on the assessment of risks of short-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). http://www.reach-info.de/dokumente/short-chain_workshop_summary.pdf [accessed 5 July 2018].

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. 1992. The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. http://www.unesco.org/education/pdf/RIO_E.PDF [accessed 5 July 2018].

Wang J, Wang X, Sheng N, Zhou X, Cui R, Zhang H, et al. . 2017a. RNA-sequencing analysis reveals the hepatotoxic mechanism of perfluoroalkyl alternatives, HFPO2 and HFPO4, following exposure in mice. J Appl Toxicol 37(4):436–444, PMID: 27553808, 10.1002/jat.3376. PubMed DOI

Wang Z, Boucher JM, Scheringer M, Cousins IT, Hungerbühler K. 2017b. Toward a comprehensive global emission inventory of C4–C10 perfluoroalkane sulfonic acids (PFSAs) and related precursors: focus on the life cycle of C8-based products and ongoing industrial transition. Environ Sci Technol 51(8):4482–4493, 10.1021/acs.est.6b06191. PubMed DOI

Wang Z, Cousins IT, Berger U, Hungerbühler K, Scheringer M. 2016. Comparative assessment of the environmental hazards of and exposure to perfluoroalkyl phosphonic and phosphinic acids (PFPAs and PFPiAs): current knowledge, gaps, challenges and research needs. Environ Int 89–90:235–247, PMID: 26922149, 10.1016/j.envint.2016.01.023. PubMed DOI

Wang Z, Cousins IT, Scheringer M, Buck RC, Hungerbühler K. 2014a. Global emission inventories for C4–C14 perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acid (PFCA) homologues from 1951 to 2030, part I: Production and emissions from quantifiable sources. Environ Int 70:62–75, PMID: 24932785, 10.1016/j.envint.2014.04.013. PubMed DOI

Wang Z, Cousins IT, Scheringer M, Buck RC, Hungerbühler K. 2014b. Global emission inventories for C4–C14 perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acid (PFCA) homologues from 1951 to 2030, part II: The remaining pieces of the puzzle. Environ Int 69:166–176, PMID: 24861268, 10.1016/j.envint.2014.04.006. PubMed DOI

Wang Z, Cousins IT, Scheringer M, Hungerbühler K. 2013. Fluorinated alternatives to long-chain perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs), perfluoroalkane sulfonic acids (PFSAs) and their potential precursors. Environ Int 60:242–248, PMID: 24660230, 10.1016/j.envint.2013.08.021. PubMed DOI

Wang Z, Cousins IT, Scheringer M, Hungerbuehler K. 2015. Hazard assessment of fluorinated alternatives to long-chain perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) and their precursors: status quo, ongoing challenges and possible solutions. Environ Int 75:172–179, PMID: 25461427, 10.1016/j.envint.2014.11.013. PubMed DOI

Wang Z, Dewitt JC, Higgins CP, Cousins IT. 2017c. A never-ending story of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs)? Environ Sci Technol 51(5):2508–2518, PMID: 28224793, 10.1021/acs.est.6b04806. PubMed DOI

Zürich II Statement on Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs): Scientific and Regulatory Needs

Addressing Urgent Questions for PFAS in the 21st Century