GenX, introduced a decade ago as a “safer” alternative for the non-stick chemicals PFOA and PFOS, is nearly as toxic to people as what it replaced, according to a recently released Environmental Protection Agency study.
The EPA published a draft toxicity review for GenX and a related compound called PFBS, both part of the PFAS family of chemicals. The Environmental Working Group’s analysis of EPA’s assessment shows that very tiny doses of GenX and PFBS could present serious health risks, including harm to prenatal development and the immune system, liver, kidney, or thyroid.
“It is alarming that, 12 years after DuPont, 3M and other companies, under pressure from EPA, began phasing out PFOA and PFOS, we find that replacements like GenX are nearly as hazardous to human health,” said David Andrews, Ph.D., senior scientist at the EWG.
“EPA scientists have given us valuable new information here, but the study’s real significance is to show that the entire chemical regulatory system is broken,” Andrews said. “EPA has allowed hundreds of similar chemicals on the market without safety testing, and it’s urgent that the agency evaluate the risk Americans face from all of these chemicals combined.”
GenX is a successor to PFOA, formerly used by DuPont to make Teflon. PFOA has been linked to cancer in people and to the reduced effectiveness of childhood vaccines and other serious health problems at even the smallest doses. GenX’s chemical structure is very similar to PFOA’s, but it wasn’t adequately tested for safety before being put on the market in 2009, he said. DuPont has provided test results to the EPA showing that GenX caused cancer in lab animals.
GenX is used to produce non-stick coatings on food wrappers, outdoor clothing, and many other consumer goods. A 2017 report by the EWG and other groups found the GenX family of chemicals in food wrapping samples from 27 different fast-food chains.
“The system has it backwards: Instead of putting the burden of proof on EPA to show that chemicals like GenX are safe, the chemical industry should be responsible for testing its products for safety before they’re put on the market,” Andrews said. “This broken system has enabled DuPont and other companies to contaminate nearly everyone on Earth, including babies in the womb, with these chemicals.”
Although PFOA and some related PFAS chemicals have been phased out, they still contaminate the drinking water of an estimated 15 million Americans. The saga of PFOA pollution in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and beyond is told in “The Devil We Know,” a documentary available on streaming services.
It’s not “EPA” it’s the laws FIFRA, TSCA, et al. They need to be revised so that new chemical compounds aren’t innocent until proven guilty way beyond a reasonable doubt AND EPA gets funding sufficient to enable it to do its own tests if there’s ANY doubt at all regarding potential human/other species risk (EPA lost funding to do most of its own research years ago). As a result, EPA is forced, for the most part, to rely on whatever research the corporations that seek to profit from sale/use of these compounds submit.
Just how corrupt that system can be was well documented years ago in A Bitter Fog, by Carol Van Strum. Among other matters, it describes how a Dow, et al submitted results from a lab that forged results (IBT). It was a fairly big scandal at the time, but guess what? None of the chemical compounds that were okayed based on test results from that lab had their registrations suspended until new tests had been performed that documented the risks, etc., to humans from use & exposure. And that’s been true & is still true.
Thank you for bringing yet another instance of inadequate gov’t regulation and how corporate drive for short term profits endangers everyone in the US.
Hi azure,
Yes, you’re absolutely right. Chemicals need to be tested before they’re put in consumer goods and sold. Congress must change this.
Rita