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Suggestions for Improving the Characterization of Risk from Exposures to Per and Polyfluorinated Alkyl Substances
Author(s) -
Mikkonen Antti T.,
Martin Jennifer,
Dourson Michael L.,
Hinwood Andrea,
Johnson Mark S.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
environmental toxicology and chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1552-8618
pISSN - 0730-7268
DOI - 10.1002/etc.4931
Subject(s) - risk assessment , perfluorooctanoic acid , consistency (knowledge bases) , risk analysis (engineering) , environmental science , environmental health , computer science , environmental chemistry , chemistry , business , medicine , computer security , artificial intelligence
Many state and federal environmental and health agencies have developed risk‐based criteria for assessing the risk of adverse health effects of per‐ and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) exposure to humans and the environment. However, the criteria that have been developed vary; drinking water criteria developed for perfluorooctanoic acid, for example, can vary by up to 750 fold. This is due to differences and variability in the data and information used, study/endpoint selection, assumptions and magnitude of uncertainty factors used in the absence and extrapolation of critical effect data, differences in underlying approaches to addressing exposure within criteria development, and/or policy decisions on levels of acceptable risk. We have critically evaluated the methods used to develop these criteria while focusing on derivation and application of drinking water criteria and discuss a range of improvements to risk‐characterization practice recently presented at a Focused Topic Meeting on PFAS conducted by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in Durham, North Carolina, USA, 12 to 15 August 2019. We propose methods that consider maximizing the use of disparate data streams, seeking patterns, and proposing biologically based approaches to evidence integration toward informed criteria development. Environ Toxicol Chem 2021;40:883–898. © 2020 SETAC