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jcart19  
#1 Posted : 05 February 2025 10:26:15(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
jcart19

Hi, I've been looking into the PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) to understand more around potential risks on occupational exposure. Have read alot over the past week through UK REACH, UK Committee on Toxcity, ECHA and US EPA - seems to be very little (if anything) on occupational exposure and more around risks of the environment and the upcoming ban of AFFF Fire Extinguishers containing PFOS/PFOA/PFHxS. Wondered if anyone had views on this, particularly around controls and monitoring? 

Kate  
#2 Posted : 05 February 2025 10:41:29(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Kate

The whole point of these chemicals is that they are pretty unreactive with most things including biological organisms, and that's exactly why there is a problem in them persisting in the environment.  The flipside of this is that occupational exposure isn't likely to be a major issue with them.  They are being banned anyway on environmental grounds so this doesn't seem like a particularly opportune time to investigate occupational exposure unless you have some specific reason for doing this.

thanks 4 users thanked Kate for this useful post.
peter gotch on 05/02/2025(UTC), Roundtuit on 05/02/2025(UTC), A Kurdziel on 05/02/2025(UTC), jcart19 on 10/02/2025(UTC)
stevedm  
#3 Posted : 05 February 2025 17:14:13(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
stevedm

...I am sure you have read all of these studies but I have only been inviolved in the clinical side of exposure and routes to that...couple of good references that I use:

https://pfastoxdatabase.org/ - which provides a good initial graphic to show the Tox effects in Human Animal and Enviromental studies.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK584702/ - this one is more about testing and follow up.  We derived a draft guidance note based on the patience testing results and the expsoure risk banding...

Although Kate makes a good point, the human exposure is something that still needs consideration as you have a full range of risks...just becase it is banned doesn't necessarily mean there is no exposure :)

thanks 1 user thanked stevedm for this useful post.
jcart19 on 10/02/2025(UTC)
jcart19  
#4 Posted : 10 February 2025 16:13:11(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
jcart19

Thanks for the feedback and responses, it’s interesting to see what comes out on the studies upon human exposure and any potential WELs to support. Something I’m going to stay close to.
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