PFOA
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Chemical Formula: C8HF15O2
Chemical composition of PFOA
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BACKGROUND
What is PFOA?
PFOA is an industrial acid that is one of many perfluorinated acids used today. It is used as an industrial surfactant in the production of grease resistant, water resistant, and heat resistant goods. A surfactant is used to stabilize mixtures of oil and water. It is most commonly associated with the brand name Teflon but is used in a range of applications from everyday clothing to firefighter’s jackets to popcorn bags. Needless to say, it's all over the place.
PFOA: A History
The story of PFOA starts with a company called 3M who began making a product called Scotchgard that protected fabric, furniture, and carpets. Scotchgard required the use of PFOA to produce it. According to one Seatle Times article, everything seemed to be working fine until 3M began testing their employees blood for chemicals as a precaution. They used non-employee blood as a baseline and found PFOA in both. Wanting to avoid an incident, 3M stopped producing PFOA, which, after further research they thought could be making its employees sick. DuPont still needed PFOA and since 3M was their sole supplier of the chemical, they decided to construct their own plant. Since then, PFOA has entered the spotlight.
HEALTH and ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Why We Should Care?
Currently, DuPont is the only company producing PFOA in the United States which could come as an automatic warning bell since DuPont is often involved in major lawsuits.
PFOA has long been a suspect as an animal carcinogen. In 1999 DuPont was sued by a farming family near a landfill where they were dumping PFOA as non-hazardous waste. It then leached into a stream which the cows drank. The cows then died of symptoms very similar to those found in lab rats being exposed to PFOA. DuPont settled the case outside of court with no admission of guilt and the family that started the suit is not allowed to discuss the case in any capacity.
As often happens, PFOA found its way into the human drinking water as well. DuPont thought that the levels in the water were too low to cause health effects. From internal studies DuPont knew that in animals PFOA causes birth defects, cancer, and other serious health problems including enlarged organs. After a few more studies came out in 2002 the EPA launched "the largest regulatory review under the Toxic Substances Control Act in the history of the EPA." They wanted to find out what was going on.
What the subsequent studies unearthed is why we should care. As it turns out, PFOA is bioaccumulative and extremely persistent in the environment. Bioaccumulative substances build up in living tissue and are not quickly filtered out. In humans its half-life is 4 years. When these studies went national it was found that 95% of Americans have PFOA in their blood and 96% children in 23 states (According to this Seattle Times article).
www.pollutioninpeople.org/images/fig5_pfoa.jpg
So what about Clothing?
The good news is that you don't have to throw away your stain resistant shirts or your waterproof jackets. They won’t give you cancer (at least not from PFOA). Studies are showing that PFOA is not getting into people through clothing, Scratchgard, or Teflon. To guard against PFOA contamination in clothing, companies heat any clothes that use PFOA to eliminate it entirely. The bad news is that PFOA that was used to keep your shirt stain-free is still getting into you..... somehow. PFOA has been found on every continent including in the ice on both poles. It is in polar bears, birds, remote lakes where humans haven't been in years, and everywhere in-between. To complicate matters, nobody knows exactly how it travels, or how it is absorbed into the body. We just know that it is.
SOLUTIONS
Fortunately for us, PFOA will be eliminated from factory emissions and products in 2015, and DuPont has already reduced its emissions. The downside is that it could still be used as a chemical intermediate.
SOURCES
Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Fluorinated Telomers. 6th Nov. 2007. US EPA. 16th Jan. 2008. [http://www.epa.gov/oppt/pfoa/].
PFOA-facts.com. 2005. The Society of the Plastics Industry. 16th Jan. 2008. [http://www.pfoa-facts.com/].
Perfluorooctanoic acid. 20 Jan. 2008. Wikipedia.org. 16th Jan. 2008. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfluorooctanoic_acid].
PFOA - Perfluorooctanoic Acid - Concerns Regarding Exposure and Products Such As Teflon. 2007. Unknown. 16th Jan. 2008.
[http://www.pfoa.com/are-there-reasonable-alternatives-to-the-use-of-PFOA.html].
“Harmful Teflon Chemical To Be Eliminated by 2015.” 26 Jan. 2006. Washington Post.com. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/25/AR2006012502041_pf.html>.
“PFOA-Home Page.” Dupont.com. 2007. 19 Jan. 2008. <http://www2.dupont.com/PFOA/en_US/>.
“Perfluorooctanoic Acid.” Defendingscience.org. Unknown. 22 Jan. 2008. <http://www.defendingscience.org/case_studies/perfluorooctanoic-acid.cfm>.
“Chemical in Teflon, other goods is turning up in disturbing places.” seattletimes.nwsource.com. 1 Oct. 2004. 23 Jan. 2008. <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002050937_teflon01.html>.
“Waterproofing the Ocean: the consequence of keeping dry.” Greenlivingjournal.com. 9 May. 2007. 25 Jan. 2008. <http://www.greenlivingjournal.com/page.php?p=9121>.
“Posts with PFOA.” Blogspot.com. Unknown. 27 Jan. 2008. <http://theneighborhoodtoxicologist.blogspot.com/search/label/PFOA>.
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