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PFAS Forever Chemicals - The cancer-causing disease coverup and conspiracy.

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By Matt Ralston
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PFAS Forever Chemicals - The cancer-causing disease coverup and conspiracy.

What are PFAS, or forever chemicals?

Poly-fluorinated alkane substances (PFAS) are chemicals that have been designated as confirmed and concerning environmental toxins by governments across the globe. Such government organizations have designated Forever Chemicals (commonly known as PFAS or more generally PFCs) as urgent areas of research and remediation since the (2000s) in many cases, across multiple areas of concern, including agricultural departments, drinking water, environment and ecology and more. Governments that are currently regulating the applications of Forever Chemicals and PFAS include the United States (EPA/NIH), the United Kingdom (HSE/EA/DEFRA), the EU (ECHA), Canada (Health Canada, CFIA and ECCC), New Zealand (EPA and Ministry of Health), the UN (UNEP), Japan (MHLW, Ministry of Environment, METI), and China (MEE, FECO).

Poly-fluorinated chemicals are carbon-based molecules that have multiple fluorine atoms attached along their surfaces. PFAS have both "hydrophobic" and "hydrophillic" properties like oils and detergents, making them difficult to remove from soils, water, and living beings.

PFAS have been designated as hazardous because of key chemical properties, including the difficulty of clearing water bodies and lands of these chemicals in order to prevent contamination of agricultural products, lands, and drinking water. Notably, Veritasium and More Perfect Union provide nice reviews of the viewpoints of doctors, chemists and industry leaders about why "forever chemicals" are so notoriously tricky to scrub/cleanup from humans12, animals14, plants22, and our environment15-22.

Why does it matter if PFAS are oil-like?

As you may remember, it is difficult to scrub off oil layers with water based cleaning products. The human body is 60-70% water, and this makes it very difficult for the body to clean such substances from human blood as well as fat cells (due to their amphipathic nature) in organs where the PFAS accumulate. The mean serum clearance rate of PFOA and PFOS as half-lives are estimated as about 3.5 - 4.8 years34, 35. To translate: it takes at least 3.5 years for half of the contaminants in your body to be excreted. And then for the next half (75% of original levels) it takes an additional 3.5 years: 7 years to clear 75% of the toxins accumulated since the starting point.

Why do the fluorine atoms matter in poly-fluoridates alkanes (PFAS)?

In contrast to some people's opinions on fluorine in the water, fluorine in these chemicals are dangerous for a specific and well-studied chemical reason. The same reason these chemicals have industry importance as flame retardants, refridgerants, and non-stick layers that eventually scrape off into food (Teflon is a notable example), is the reason why they are dangerous for animals and humans to consume.3-11

The Carbon-Fluorine bond is known as "the strongest in organic chemistry"2. More specifically, it is 4th in all of the chemical bonds, behind B-F, Si-F, , and H-F.1. This distinction is important because such chemicals are notoriously difficult to decompose at standard temperatures and pressures and they last a long time in living tissues or contaminated environments without specific chemical extractions and catalysis to reduce the chemical to its core components. "It is well recognized that PFAS are characterized by extreme resistance to thermal, chemical or biotic degradation which causes environmental persistence and poses serious concerns to the ecosystems and human health".13

Because this chemical does not decompose readily, it remains in human and animal tissues, causing specific studies to suggest autoimmune disorders and dylipidemia12 ,

How are humans exposed to PFAS?

Humans may accumulate PFAS over time through consuming drinking water, microwave popcorn (microwave popcorn bags often contain PFAS which leach into the butter product), fruits/vegetables grown in PFAS contaminated soils, or meats from animals raised on PFAS contaminated foods. We can also absorb PFAS from anything that has continuous exposure to our bodys' skin, including stain-proof clothings, carpets, and more.

Are PFAS dangerous components of our food supply?

Yes, for commonly known reasons. Toxins tend to accumulate in animals higher in the food chain first; this seems counterintuitive to some of us. Plants absorb PFAS from the soil, primarily through the application of manure/biosolids23-26, 28 and runoff from nearby chemical plants. Biosolids are a huge source of cheap fertilizers23,24 and are dispersed on farms in Europe and the US at a rate of 4.5-7 *million* tons per year20, 23, 24. The contamination accumulates further as we go up the food-chain, where PFAS contaminated feedstocks are ingested by cows, pigs, and other large animals in large amounts. Some PFAS deposit in the fat tissues of the animals we eat. The remaining PFAS are released in agricultural runoff, dried and compressed into biosolids (essentially a rebranding of manure) and then are spread on soils to grow more food for humans and animals. By continually contaminating the soils with PFAS, and given the high rate of feed consumption by the livestock, animals ingest a large amount of PFAS/forever chemicals over time, and then we eat these animals.

"Once deposited on soil, PFAS substances can subsequently leach into groundwater, be transferred to surface watersheds or enter into terrestrial food webs including plants, terrestrial organisms, livestock and agricultural products representing key food sources for human diet, thus largely contributing to the human exposure via the environment. Accumulating evidence suggest that PFAS soil content is directly correlated with their bioaccumulation rate in plants, which is dictated by the specific chemistry of the PFAS substance, the plant species, the target organs (e.g., root, leaves) and the occurrence of abiotic factors (e.g., temperature, salinity, pH changes, content of organic carbon) influencing PFAS bioavailability."20

What are the effects of PFAS/PFCs on human health?

When understanding the available evidence about PFAS, we should consider two things. First, our parents generations did not understand the role of these chemicals in contaminating our environment, much like asbestos. Decades upon decades of manufacturing these chemicals has made them mainstream ingredients or contaminants throughout our supply chain. Secondly, because these are not primary ingredients in foodstuffs or certain other regulated portions of consumer society, the longitudinal effects of exposure to PFAS has not been well understood (nor regulated) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), or the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

As a result, we only have academic studies looking at the problem of PFAS from two main angles. The primary research angle assesses the accumulation of the category of molecules known as poly/per-fluoridated compounds (PFCs) and poly/per-fluorinated alkane substances (PFAS) as environmental contaminants in soil, water, and atmosphere. The secondary research angle involves in vitro and in vivo studies on the effects of mostly simple short-term acute exposures to PFAS on cellular and organ-level processes in living beings.

in vitro studies

A handful of studies were recently reviewed that looked at the effects of specific short-chain, common poly-fluorinated compounds (PFCs) and poly-fluorinated alkane substances. Zeng et al. noted that radical oxidative species (ROS) and mitochondrial health were impacted by PFOS (a PFAS/PFC called (per)fluoro-octane-sulfonate), as well as autophagy/cell cycle disruption (bax, caspase-3 activity, etc.). Louisse et al. noted elevated levels of triglycerides (presumably from biosynthesis, or membrane disruption) in the cells and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress on HepaRG human liver cell lines. And further at the liver cell level, certain bile and cholesterol-related functions were disrupted in liver cell lines, in-vitro. Behr et al. have shown, at least in-vitro, that some of the mechanisms involved with PFAS-induced changes seem to point to disruption of membranes or membrane affecting cellular-signals, either through causal or reactive mechanisms to the introduction of certain types of PFAS/PFCs.

in vivo studies

To further assess suspected response mechanisms throughout the body at the cellular level with in vitro studies, researchers would additionally assess the mechanisms of PFAS-mediated dysregulation through in vivo studies.

A study from Li et al. (2021) in the journal Environmental Pollution32 evaluated over 2,400 proteins across 1,292 glycosites for evidence of the disruption of mice homeostasis via examining post-translational modifications (typically glycosylation) with glycoproteomics. They found two putative markers for PFOS (perfluorooctanesulfonate) mediated dysregulation in vivo: haptoglobin and HSP90AA1, the latter being a heat-shock protein. 241 different proteins were found to be significantly changed from homeostatic mouse liver levels (fold change ≥ 2, p < 0.05).

Another study re-evaluated the role of xenobiotic responses (CAR, PXR; toxin metabolism) to introduction of PFOA and PFOS into human and rat primary liver cells via qRT-PCR readout. They indicate a shift from glycolytic metabolism (primary carbohydrate metabolism) to fatty acid oxidation responses and hepatic triglyceride accumulation.34

Some of these findings involving histomorphological changes of the liver and triglyceride accumulation were consistent with Elcombe et al. who also observed increased levels of cytochromes CYP4A, CYP2B, and CYP3A, which are important in the oxidation of some molecules by non-traditional bond specificities.36

References

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