As science on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) develops, NIEHS continually plays a substantive role.

A group of more than 9,000 manmade chemicals, PFAS have been used for decades in a variety of industrial and consumer products. Now found in drinking water, soil, and dust, researchers estimate they can be detected in 98% of Americans.

PFAS stay in the environment, rather than breaking down, due to chemical bonds within the molecules that are hard to split.

Health effects related to PFAS

NIEHS partnered with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to commission a study on health effects related to PFAS by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The resulting report, “Guidance on PFAS Exposure, Testing, and Clinical Follow-Up,” notes that all 50 states have some PFAS contamination, but not all of this contamination is at a level that calls for health warnings. People are mainly exposed to PFAS through consuming contaminated water and food, according to the report.

“NIEHS-funded scientists are currently assessing different kinds of PFAS and supporting the development of methods to screen for, monitor, and remediate these substances, among many other efforts,” said NIEHS Director Rick Woychik, Ph.D.

Health effects from PFAS exposure are a concern. The report asserts there is sufficient evidence of association between such exposure and increased chance of a decreased antibody response in adults and children, decreased infant and fetal growth, dyslipidemia (abnormally high cholesterol), and kidney cancer in adults.

The report’s information, coupled with research supported by NIEHS, can be used to help clinicians better test, diagnose, and provide care to patients exposed to PFAS.

PFAS removal can prevent harm

Although PFAS are notoriously difficult and expensive to clean up, promising cost-effective technologies are underway. Novel remediation methods are being developed with grant funding from the NIEHS Superfund Research Program (SRP).

Successful remediation requires an initial crack of hard-to-break bonds in the PFAS molecule followed by destruction of any harmful secondary molecules. Some PFAS or their byproducts of removal are buried or burned, which leads to other environmental concerns. Cleaner methods are needed.

At the University of California, Riverside, NIEHS grant recipients demonstrated how microbes can break down certain PFAS into smaller, non-toxic molecules. They also showed that some types of PFAS can be more easily degraded than others.

At Texas A&M University, NIEHS grant recipients discovered a plant-derived material that adsorbs and disposes of certain PFAS with microbial fungi that literally eat these chemicals. Adsorption is the process of molecules sticking to a surface.

“The plant’s cell wall material serves as a framework to adsorb the PFAS,” stated Susie Dai, Ph.D., in the university’s news release. “Then this material and the adsorbed chemical serve as food for a microbial fungus. The fungus eats it, it’s gone, and you don’t have the disposal problem. Basically, the fungus is doing the detoxification process.”

Learn about other promising technologies and approaches for cleaning up PFAS by reading this March 2022 SRP Science Digest(https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/centers/srp/science_digest/2022/3/features/).

More to do for clean drinking water

Knowledge of the effects of PFAS exposure and potential treatments has grown thanks to recent research. But there is more work to do, and those efforts involve progressing science into preparation for handling the future discovery of other harmful chemicals.

In addition to PFAS, there are certain other chemical compounds that have attracted national attention because they have been found in water sources. Called “contaminants of emerging concern,” these pollutants come from everyday consumer products, industrial manufacturing processes, and agricultural practices. But they have been traditionally difficult to detect in drinking water.

“Preventing exposure to harmful chemicals, like PFAS, is our best course of action,” said Balshaw. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw / NIEHS)

In response, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued the National Emerging Contaminants Research Initiative report, August 5. The document establishes a vision to provide access to clean and plentiful drinking water for every person in the country. Strategic goals that address critical research gaps are outlined.

NIEHS staff shaped the report as leading members of the interagency working group (see sidebar).

“The working group aimed to identify critical research priorities for analyzing, monitoring, and treating emerging contaminants in drinking water,” said David Balshaw, Ph.D., Acting Director of the NIEHS Division of Extramural Research and Training. “Integrating the work of federal agencies is necessary to address data gaps and to protect public health.”

In the coming year, OSTP and federal partners will coordinate to support implementation of this initiative.

The drinking water cycle is complex and makes research challenging. Information from the National Emerging Contaminants Research Initiative will inform future drinking water standards, advisories, and public health actions. (Photo courtesy of Boris Chamicevyc / Shutterstock.com)

Citations:
Calafat AM, Wong LY, Kuklenyik Z, Reidy JA, Needham LL. 2007. Polyfluoroalkyl chemicals in the U.S. population: data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2004 and comparisons with NHANES 1999-2000. Environ Health Perspect 115(11):1596–1602.

Li J, Li X, Da Y, Yu J, Long B, Zhang P, Bakker C, McCarl BA, Yuan JS, Dai SY. 2022. Sustainable environmental remediation via biomimetic multifunctional lignocellulosic nano-framework. Nat Commun 13(1):4368.

Stoiber T, Evans S, Naidenko OV. 2020. Disposal of products and materials containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS): A cyclical problem. Chemosphere 260:127659.

Yu Y, Che S, Ren C, Jin B, Tian Z, Liu J, Men Y. 2022. Microbial defluorination of unsaturated per- and polyfluorinated carboxylic acids under anaerobic and aerobic conditions: A structure specificity study. Environ Sci Technol 56(8):4894–4904.

(Carol Kelly is managing editor for the NIEHS Office of Communications and Public Liaison.)