Perfluorooctanoic Acid Exposure and Cancer Outcomes in a Contaminated Community: A Geographic Analysis

Abstract

Background: Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) has been linked to cancer in occupational mortality studies and animal toxicologic research.Objective: We investigated the relationship between PFOA exposure and cancer among residents living near the DuPont Teflon-manufacturing plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia (WV).Methods: Our analyses included incident cases of 18 cancers diagnosed from 1996 through 2005 in five Ohio (OH) counties and eight WV counties. For analyses of each cancer outcome, controls comprised all other cancers in the study data set except kidney, pancreatic, testicular, and liver cancers, which have been associated with PFOA in animal or human studies. We applied logistic regression models to individual-level data to calculate adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and confidence intervals (CIs). For the combined analysis of OH and WV data, the exposure of interest was resident water district. Within OH, geocoded addresses were integrated with a PFOA exposure model to examine the relationship between cancer odds and categories of estimated PFOA serum.Results: Our final data set included 7,869 OH cases and 17,238 WV cases. There was a positive association between kidney cancer and the very high and high serum exposure categories [AOR = 2.0 (95% CI: 1.0, 3.9) n = 9 and 2.0 (95% CI: 1.3, 3.2) n = 22, respectively] and a null association with the other exposure categories compared with the unexposed. The largest AOR was for testicular cancer with the very high exposure category [2.8 (95% CI: 0.8, 9.2) n = 6], but there was an inverse association with the lower exposure groups, and all estimates were imprecise because of small case numbers.Conclusions: Our results suggest that higher PFOA serum levels may be associated with testicular, kidney, prostate, and ovarian cancers and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Strengths of this study include near-complete case ascertainment for state residents and well-characterized contrasts in predicted PFOA serum levels from six contaminated water supplies.

A cohort incidence study of workers exposed to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)

“…Our findings for prostate cancer, non-hepatitis liver disease and male thyroid disease have some support in earlier work. Positive prostate cancer trends, generally of borderline significance, were found in Vieira et al 18 (ecological study in the mid-Ohio valley), Eriksen et al 19 (study in population with background PFOA levels), and Lundin et al 20 (study in population with occupational levels). Positive trends in male thyroid disease were found in our community/worker combined cohort study 13.…”

“…In humans, the primary associations that have been observed have included ulcerative colitis (an autoimmune disease),12 thyroid disease,13 high cholesterol,14 15 kidney cancer,16 17 testicular cancer,17 18 prostate cancer19 20 and non-malignant kidney disease 16. Pregnancy-induced hypertension has also been associated with PFOA 21…”

Per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFASs): Environmental challenges

“…Concerning cancer, two papers concluded that there was a probable link between high PFOA exposure and testicular and kidney cancers, and, at the highest exposures, with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and prostate and ovarian cancers [305,306]. On the other hand, a strong inverse…”

Occurrence of perfluoroalkyl acids in environmental waters in Vietnam

“…Chronic exposure to PFOA and PFOS causes tumors in experimental animals, but there are no chronic toxicology data for other PFAAs (Lau, 2012). PFOA has been described as a likely human carcinogen by USEPA Science Advisory Board (USEPA, 2006) and has been linked to two types of cancer in communities with drinking water exposure (Vieira et al, 2013). PFOA may also increase the risk of prostate cancer (Gilliland and Mandel, 1993).…”