Chemours Bid to Strike PFAS Health Advisory, Rejected
Chemours is a corporate spin-off of DuPont. The 2019 movie Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway is based on what happened to cattle near an associated undocumented chemical waste site. DuPont settled with the largest penalty to that date to a single chemical manufacturer, $671 M. Great movie by the way.
Reminder, PFAS have been synthesized since the 1940’s. The chemicals are in everyday products, and now scientific studies are locating in soils, groundwater, and in the plants and animals we eat today. They were deemed “Forever Chemicals” due to the Fluorine Carbon bonds, which are one of the strongest molecular bonds known to exist. Studies reveal that the chemicals have been detected in 98% of Americans, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
June 29, 2024 a Philadelphia US Court of Appeals upheld and supported a US EPA health advisory for GenX. GenX is a new ‘alternative’ PFAS with a shorter carbon chain (six or fewer). Evidence shows alternative PFAS such as GenX with shorter chain organoflourine chemical compound will be easier to breakdown and therefore easier to remediate. Taking this shorter is better concept a step further, a person might think the GenX PFAS shouldn’t be as harmful as the PFOA and PFOS. However, a report published in October of 2021 - Human Health Toxicity Values for Hexafluoropropylene Oxide (HFPO) Dimer Acid and Its Ammonium Salt. Also Known as “GenX Chemicals” provides evidence to the contrary.
Consistent with the Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment, EPA concluded that there is Suggestive Evidence of Carcinogenic Potential of oral exposure to GenX chemicals in humans, based on the female hepatocellular adenomas and hepatocellular carcinomas and male combined pancreatic acinar adenomas and carcinomas observed in the chronic 2-year study in rats. DuPont was continually testing chemicals on animals, they just did not publish the results, nor did they alert the authorities. The following excerpt is from such a DuPont GenX study authored in 2013.
Across all dosing groups in both male and female rats, 25.4% of the test animals survived to their planned terminal necropsy while 74.6% of the animals experienced unscheduled death/ moribundity prior to the scheduled study termination at 104 weeks. The authors state that mean survival in males and females was unaffected by treatment; however, all females were sacrificed before study termination at 101 weeks because of decreased survival across all groups, including the control. There were no statistically significant differences in survival across the female dosing groups and female survival was comparable across all dosing groups. Among the animals that experienced unscheduled death/moribundity on study due to effects determined to be unrelated to treatment, DuPont stated the males most commonly died from pituitary tumors and undetermined causes while the females most commonly died from pituitary tumors and mammary tumors.
These chemicals we use everyday and they are everywhere globally. Chemical companies outside of the US and Europe are still manufacturing PFOS and PFOA, the two most toxic PFAS to date. Is it any wonder why younger people are contracting cancer?