[CPEO-MEF] PFAS, BIOTA: "Developing Toxicity Reference Values for PFAS"

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

Developing Toxicity Reference Values for PFAS
SERDP Principal Investigators used an interdisciplinary approach to understand the health effects of PFAS on wildlife and provide a reference point for developing toxicity reference values. 


By Dana Fahey
SERDP-ESTCP
March 13, 2023 

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are chemicals that are persistent in the environment and challenging to remediate, and scientists are working to understand their health effects. PFAS can become concentrated inside organisms and spread more widely as they are ingested by other plants or animals. Consequently, PFAS risks are shared across humans, animals, and ecosystems, so it is critical that collaboration happens across disciplines to understand the effects of PFAS exposure. 

To tackle this issue, SERDP-funded researchers with the Defense Centers for Public Health – Aberdeen (DCPH-A) took an interdisciplinary approach to generate data that supports the development of toxicity reference values (TRVs) for PFAS. These values are used to assess the health risks associated with different levels of PFAS exposure. 

Dr. Michael Quinn, the Chief of the Directorate of Toxicology’s Health Effects Division of DCPH-A, was the principal investigator for this SERDP project. Dr. Allison Narizzano, a toxicologist at DCPH-A, worked hand-in-hand with Dr. Quinn and their other team members on this important research. 

Dr. Quinn and Dr. Narizzano generated data that supports the development of toxicity reference values for PFAS using a wild mouse species (pictured here). Credit: U.S. Army Photo, APHC. J. Graham Snodgrass (2018).

Being one of the first SERDP projects to perform ecological toxicity work to fill these crucial gaps, this project addressed PFAS ecotoxicity research needs using a native, wild mammalian species. The two types of wild mice the team studied as the subjects for this research allowed them to concurrently assess ecosystem and human health. The wild mouse species is an ideal model for studying human diseases, as studies have shown that wild mice have greater genetic diversity than other traditional laboratory animals. Since this genetic diversity is more like what is found in human populations than traditional laboratory rodent strains, toxicity data from these studies may also provide additional insight into the predicted human impacts of PFAS. 

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.serdp-estcp.org/blogs/details/6a8a435a-a111-411f-8cdc-a2b8d59656ef/developing-toxicity-reference-values-for-pfas

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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