2023-12-01 01:30:04
On the pitch of the Rugby Club Savoie in Rumilly (Haute-Savoie), a town widely exposed to PFAS, on February 10, 2022. BRUNO AMSELLEM / DIVERGENCE “FOR THE WORLD” / BRUNO AMSELLEM / DIVERGENCE “FOR THE WORLD”
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced Thursday, November 30 in the journal The Lancet Oncology having respectively classified PFOA and PFOS as “carcinogenic to humans” and “possible carcinogen”, two of the most widespread per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – banned in Europe since 2019 and 2009.
Reread our report: Article reserved for our subscribers Rumilly, “world capital of frying pans” and hot spot for “eternal pollution” with PFAS
Toxic and extremely persistent in soil, water and living organisms, these pollutants are sometimes nicknamed “eternal pollutants”. Widespread for decades in the environment by a variety of industrial activities and consumer products (cookware coatings, textiles, leather processing, electrical materials, semiconductors, inks, fire-fighting foams, etc. ), they are now present throughout the food chain and in many water resources. They constitute an emerging, and major, public health problem; the entire human population is exposed to it.
The main scientific authority for classifying carcinogens in the world, the IARC assesses the strength of available evidence of carcinogenicity according to three levels: “possible carcinogen” (group 2B), “probable carcinogen” (group 2A) and, finally, the highest level of evidence, “carcinogenic to humans” (category 1). When it is impossible to provide convincing or consistent evidence, the substances and agents evaluated land in category 3 (“unclassifiable as to its carcinogenicity”).
Increased risk of tumors of the liver, pancreas, uterus
Established in Lyon (France) and attached to the World Health Organization, the IARC bases its evaluations on working groups made up of researchers from the academic world (universities, public research organizations, etc.), scientifically recognized and free to conflicts of interest. In this case, thirty scientists from eleven nationalities and several disciplines ruled on PFOS and PFOA.
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This is the first time that PFOS has been the subject of an evaluation by the IARC, while PFOA was classified as a “possible carcinogen” in 2014. “In its previous assessment of PFOA, IARC proposed that carcinogenicity is due to immunotoxicityrecalls Philippe Grandjean (University of Southern Denmark), one of the world’s best specialists in these substances, who did not participate in the work of the IARC. The mechanism could be that weakened immune function would be less effective in eliminating abnormal cells. »
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