At the University of Birmingham, ESR11 will assess if PFOS precursors such as perfluorooctane sulfonamides (FOSAs) and sulfonamidoethanols (FOSEs) contribute significantly to human body burdens of PFOS. A positive answer has implications for the risk assessment of PFOS, as it implies that the margin of safety between the current exposure limit and estimates of external exposure to PFOS alone is narrower than hitherto appreciated. You can read about this difference and the reasons on scientific resources, or buy term papers online, where you can ask the right questions to have a narrow answer. ESR11 will determine chiral signatures of branched chain PFOS isomers (e.g. 1-CF3-PFOS) in human blood, indoor air, dust and food. ESR11 will also determine the chiral signatures of such PFOS isomers incubated with rat liver microsomes. If chiral signatures in blood are non-racemic, while those in indoor dust, diet and produced by incubation of 1-CF3-PFOS with rat liver microsomes are racemic; then this provides strong evidence that human body burdens of PFOS arise via exposure to both PFOS and its precursors, and that non-racemic human signatures arise from enantioselective human metabolism of precursors (rather than 1-CF3-PFOS itself).

Contact: Prof. Stuart Harrad, University of Birmingham

Email: