Fluorochemicals used in food packaging inhibit male sex hormone synthesis

PFAS in Paper and Board for Food Contact

“…Prior to this, organofluorine compounds had been discovered in 1966 in the blood of production workers (Taves 1966(Taves , 1968. PFOS and PFOA, which belong to the group of perfluoro alkyl acids (PFAAs) have been found to be toxic, as have other PFAAs and precursors thereof, such as the fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs) and polyfluoro alkyl phosphate esters (PAPs) (Rosenmai et al 2013). Because of their widespread occurrence, toxicity, bioaccumulation potential and extreme persistency, PFAAs and their precursors are increasingly being regulated by international regulations, such as the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs), (UNEP 2010), and the European chemicals legislation REACH (REACH 2006), and are included on the SIN list (Chem Sec 2017).…”

“…Similarly, the toxicological studies have primarily focused on the toxicity of the PFAAs (PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxA, PFBS and PFHxS) and to some extent of the FTOHs, whereas the literature is scarce on the toxicity and risk assessment of the polyfluorinated precursors of PFAAs (D'eon, 2011 a and b, D'eon 2014, Rosenmai et al, 2013, Wang et al, 2014 and other fluorinated alternatives such as the PFPEs (Trier 2011, Dimzon 2014. This data gap in both exploratory and confirmatory research on toxicity, exposure and of possibly unknown sinks of PFAA precursors makes it very difficult to assess which sources are the most relevant for human exposure-and hence whether there are a few sources which would be most efficient to regulate.…”

Per- and polyfluorinated substances in the Nordic Countries

“…In vitro assays using human cell cultures (H295R human adrenal cortico-carcinoma cells) showed that 8:2 diPAPS and 8:2 monoPAPS gave rise to decreases in androgens (testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone, and androstenedione) in the steroidogenic pathway, indicating an affect of steroidogenesis (Rosenmai et al, 2012). 8:2 triPAPS, 10:2 diPAPS showed a less marked effect on androgens in the steroidogenesis assay and did not disrupt the binding to androgen receptor.…”

“…Moreover, 8:2 FTOH showed the capacity to decrease testosterone levels in the human adrenal corticocarcinoma cell line (Liu et al, 2010b) but did not interfere with androgen receptor activation (Rosenmai et al, 2012). The authors assumed that the effect was due to FTOH and not the metabolite PFOA, as the hormone profile of these two compounds did not uniformly match.…”

Polyfluorinated Alkyl Phosphate Ester Surfactants – Current Knowledge and Knowledge Gaps

“…To our knowledge, only a single in vitro study has been published regarding the toxicology of PAPs. In this study, the potential of four PAPs (8:2 monoPAP, 8:2/8:2diPAPs, 10:2/10:2 diPAP and 8:2/8:2/8:2 triPAP) to interfere with steroid hormone synthesis and androgen receptor (AR) activation using two in vitro assays (the H295R steroidogenesis assay and a AR reporter gene assay) was examined [30]. All four PAPs caused decreased levels of progesterone and 17a-OHprogesterone in the H295R assay and for two of the four PAPs, 8:2/8:2 diPAP and 8:2 monoPAP, a decrease in androgens levels was also observed.…”