This perfluorinated molecule, which has been used for years to make coatings for non-stick pans, was recently classified as “proven carcinogen” by the Lyon-based International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). PFOS, another compound in the PFAS family, is classified as “possibly carcinogenic.”
The decision was feared by manufacturers around the world, scrutinized by lobbyists around the world and anticipated by citizens around the world. Now it’s official: PFOA is proven to be carcinogenic to humans.
Perfluorooctanoic acid has been used for years to make Teflon-type nonstick coatings, as well as in food packaging, water-repellent fabrics, and thousands of other everyday products. Although PFOA was banned by the Stockholm Convention in 2020, it has contaminated the fauna and flora of the entire planet, from the waters of the Rhône to polar bears. Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), previously used in AFFF firefighting foams and banned since 2009, has been classified as a “possible” carcinogen.
An announcement from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) coming this Friday, December 1st, as increasing cases of drinking water contamination by these molecules are uncovered and reported in the press. They are also found in many foods.
Also read: INVESTIGATION. “Forever pollutants”: PFOA detected in the blood of residents of Rumilly in Haute-Savoie
In mid-November, thirty independent experts from around ten different nationalities met in Lyon and reviewed all scientific studies on the molecule, especially the most recent ones. To classify PFOA as a proven carcinogen required sufficient data on human exposure via the environment, food, or work, but also epidemiological studies of exposed people, biological tests on animals, and mechanistic evidence to link observations in the animal world to humans.
Also read: “Forever pollutants” and cancer: experts from all over the world gathered in Lyon to assess the risks of PFOA and PFOS
The research panel focused on the substance’s mechanisms of action on the body and identified “solid” evidence that PFOA can cause epigenetic changes and have an immunosuppressive effect. By weakening immunity, PFOA can promote the development of cancer.
Several epidemiological studies have actually shown connections between the presence of perfluorooctanoic acid in the blood of mothers and gene-specific DNA methylation, i.e. its chemical change, in their children. Other work conducted in exposed populations shows that exposure to PFOA is associated with a high risk of contracting an infectious disease and a reduction in vaccine response.
Regarding animal studies, the IARC considered the increased incidence of benign and malignant neoplasms observed in both sexes of the same species as “sufficient” evidence.
In 2012, after the Teflon scandal and the completion of the largest epidemiological study ever conducted in the United States, scientists from C8 Panel Research concluded that PFOA exposure is likely linked to six diseases: hypocholesterolemia, thyroid disease, liver disease, high blood pressure during pregnancy, testicular cancer and kidney cancer. The IARC considered the evidence linking PFOA to these two cancers to be “limited.”
PFOS also induces epigenetic changes and has an immunosuppressive effect in exposed people. However, animal testing and epidemiological data were insufficient to classify it as a proven carcinogen.
These two perfluoroalkyls are now present in the blood of the entire world population. They are also found in the placenta, umbilical cord, and embryonic tissue and can be transmitted to children through breastfeeding.
But this IARC work, which has no regulatory value, makes it absolutely impossible to say at what level of PFOA in the human body the risk of disease occurs and to what extent. So the question facing today’s population exposed to water pollution is: Should we continue to drink from the tap? Scientists have not yet provided an answer to this.