chemical information
CAS RN:
376-06-7
Chemical Class:
Chemical SubClass
Perfluorinated carboxylic acid
Found in these people:
not found
Found in these locations:
not found
Summary
PFCs are industrial chemicals widely used as water, stain and grease repellants for food wrap, carpet, furniture, and clothing. The family includes such well known name brands as Scotchgard and Teflon.
PFCs are also released to the environment in air and water emissions at numerous manufacturing and processing facilities worldwide, including primary production sites such as DuPont's Washington Works facility, WV; 3M's Cottage Grove, MN site, and Daikin's Decatur, AL plant. PFCs are likely also released to the environment at countless secondary manufacturing facilities, including sites where consumer products are coated for water, stain, and grease repellency.
The dominant source of PFCs to the environment are likely fluorotelomer chemicals, the active ingredients in coatings of furniture, clothing, food packaging, and other products. Fluorotelomers break down in the environment and in the body to PFCs differing only in the carbon chain length and end group (Hagen, Belisle et al. 1981; Dinglasan, Ye et al. 2004).
Most PFCs are fairly mobile in water, but due to low volatility of the persistent carboxy acids and sulfonates many do not have the potential to migrate in air far from locations of its release as a manufacturing pollutant. In contrast, studies indicate that PFC telomers are relatively volatile and could migrate long distances through the atmosphere (Martin et al. 2004).
Fluorotelomers are a likely source of the persistent perfluorochemicals found in newborns in this study, and in wildlife and water in areas remote from manufacturing sites and human populations.
Available scientific findings to date show that PFCs widely contaminate human blood (Kannan, Choi et al. 2002; Olsen, Burris et al. 2002), that they persist in the body for decades (Burris, Lundberg et al. 2002), that they act through a broad range of toxic mechanisms of action to present potential harm to a wide range of organs (ovaries, liver, kidney, spleen, thymus, thyroid, pituitary, testis), and that they persist indefinitely in the environment with no known biological or environmental breakdown mechanism (3M 2000; 3M 2001; 3M 2001). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has described PFCs as combining "persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity properties to an extraordinary degree" (Auer 2000).
PFTA (Perfluorotetradecanoic acid)
Chemical class widely contaminates human blood and persists in the body for decades. Potential harm to a wide range of organs (ovaries, liver, kidney, spleen, thymus, thyroid, pituitary, testis).
PFTA (Perfluorotetradecanoic acid) has been found in 0 of the 21 people tested in EWG/Commonweal studies.
Results for PFTA (Perfluorotetradecanoic acid)
PFTA (Perfluorotetradecanoic acid) was measured in different units for some of the studies. Overall it was found in 0 of 21 people tested in EWG/Commonweal studies. The bars below are grouped by units:
in whole blood (wet weight)
Showing results from EWG/Commonweal Study #4, industrial chemicals and pesticides in cord blood, EWG Study #3, industrial chemicals and pesticides in adults
EWG/Commonweal results
- found in 0 of 13 people in the group
in blood serum (wet weight)
Showing results from EWG Study #5, Teflon and mercury in blood in adults and teens
EWG/Commonweal results
- found in 0 of 8 people in the group
