Federal Report: PFCs More Dangerous Than Previously Believed

A federal agency has released a long-awaited report suggesting that perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are more dangerous to human health than federal standards currently take into account.

News outlets have reported that the White House and the U.S. EPA previously attempted to bury the report from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) because it could cause a “public relations nightmare.” ATSDR is an agency within the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. Now, a draft of the 800-plus-page draft report has been released and it suggests current federal guidelines on PFCs in water may not be strong enough.

The EPA released a health advisory on PFOA and PFOS in 2016, “warning that exposure at levels above 70 parts per trillion could be a health risk,” E&E News reported. The new report “identifies the levels of the contaminants that a person could safely consume — and its threshold equals only one-tenth of the amount used by the EPA to develop its 2016 guidelines,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

In other words, in discussing “minimal risk levels” for oral exposure to PFOS and PFOA, the report argues that these levels are “lower than the threshold currently recommended by […]

Full article: Federal Report: PFCs More Dangerous Than Previously Believed

More about: forever chemicals (PFAS, etc.), pollution, and public health