A new study looks at how chemicals found in North Carolina waterways may have the potential to cause cancer in humans. It's the same class of compounds found in high levels at Greensboro's wastewater treatment plant and in the Cape Fear River.
Scientists at the Environmental Working Group and Indiana University conducted a review of 26 chemicals known as PFAS. It includes data from epidemiological studies conducted near Parkersburg West Virginia, internationally, and from lab tests in animals.
They found that all of the chemicals displayed at least one key characteristic of known human carcinogens.
Other well-studied compounds including PFOA and PFOS, exhibited up to five key characteristics.
Researchers say this doesn't mean that it's necessarily going to cause cancer, but it does suggest a mechanism that it might lead to cancer development.
“Preventing exposure and contamination of those sources is really important because we are missing so much data on these compounds and the data we do have shows that they may be associated with cancer development as well as other toxicities,” says Alexis Temkin, a toxicologist with EWG and a lead author of the study.
PFAS chemicals are widely used in consumer products and manufacturing. They don't break down easily in the environment or human body.
Temkin says the way that the chemicals interact together is still a big research question.
"By looking at mechanisms of potential cancer development for this broad class of chemicals it can give us a better understanding of whether or not there might be carcinogenic hazards associated with some of these other PFAS, which is concerning because we know they are in drinking water and there's likely human exposure and that mixtures of these chemicals may also have an affect that's worth studying,” says Temkin.
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