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HEIndividual fellowship2023–2025

ECOPFAS · Ecotoxicogical assessment of banned and novel PFAS as individuals or in mixture

Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2023-10-01 → 2025-09-30
EU contribution
€191,760
Participants
1
Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Ecotoxicogical assessment of banned and novel PFAS as individuals or in mixture

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a large group of synthetic organofluorine compounds widely used for their exceptional physicochemical properties. Among them, legacy PFAS such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) have been extensively used and are now found globally in the environment due to their persistence, bioaccumulation, and described toxicity. To replace these regulated substances, industry is developing new organofluorine compounds, such as perfluoroalkyl ether carboxylic acids (PFECAs) — e.g., hexafluoropropylene oxide trimer acid (HFPO-TA) and perfluoro-3,6,9-trioxadecanoic acid (PFO3DA) — and perfluoroalkyl ether sulfonic acids (PFESAs), including NBP1 and NBP2. These alternatives were designed with modified that were presumed to improve degradability and reduce environmental persistence. However, emerging evidence shows that many of these new compounds are ubiquitously detected in human serum and aquatic systems with sometimes concentrations comparable to or higher than legacy PFAS. Despite their increasing global occurrence, the ecotoxicological properties of these new PFAS remain insufficiently characterised. Underlying a critical need to understand their effects on aquatic organisms of both individual compounds and their mixtures. The ECOPFAS project addresses this gap by aiming to elucidate the ecotoxicological impacts of banned and emerging PFAS through an integrative approach combining apical toxicity testing with mechanistic (omics) analyses. The project specifically seeks to (i) characterise dose-dependent effects of individual PFAS, (ii) evaluate mixture toxicity and potential synergistic interactions, and (iii) develop mechanistic insights to support improved environmental risk assessment frameworks.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

The group of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are thermally and chemically stable with strong hydrophobic and lipophobic properties, making them highly suitable for many applications. However, they are part of the emerging chemicals identified to be persistent and bioaccumulative. They are very stable, non-degradable, and present all around the world. More than 9000 distinct individual compounds make up the PFAS group, with a carbon chain backbone between 4 and 14 C atoms in length, and a charged functional moiety: sulfonate or carboxylate. The two principal representatives and studied PFAS (perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS)) are banned in many countries, leading the major global manufacturers to find alternatives having shorter carbon chains (< C8) or with replacement chemistry with multiple ether-oxygens inserted between the perfluorinated carbon backbones, allowing the formation of non-covalent hydrogen bonds with a water molecule, which makes them more labile to degradation. However, those new chemicals have been identified in various environmental matrices are now becoming global contaminants. But our understanding of the PFAS alternatives toxicity is lacking in aquatic organisms and, in the case of emerging replacements and by-products, even not unexplored. Studies assessing their potential genetic, developmental, cellular, and systemic toxicities have not yet been conducted in aquatic organisms. To that purpose, the ECOPFAS project will investigate the acute toxicity, developmental toxicity, genotoxicity and toxicity pathways for PFAS alternatives in three freshwater species. ECOPFAS project will build on the expertise of the researchers involved together with the acquired data to provide a basis for a better understanding of the influence of the effects on individual and population fitness to support a broader integration of these data into risk assessment frameworks.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • LUXEMBOURG INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY · Esch Sur AlzetteCoordinatorLuxembourg

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union