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Evaluation of PFAS for Potential Health Effects

January 16, 2019
1:00 pm US Eastern Time

Poly- and perfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) have become a global emerging chemical emergency. These chemicals are reported to pollute the drinking water of millions of U.S. residents and are contained in aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), used to extinguish fuel-based and other fires. With thousands of PFAS identified and hundreds to thousands in current use, there has been an abundance of research detailing their effects on health of humans, animals, amphibians, birds and other levels of our ecosystem. 

In this webinar Dr. Sue Fenton, Group Lead in Reproductive Endocrinology at the National Toxicology Program Labs, NIEHS, provided an overview of the NTP efforts toward understanding potential biological targets for a large number of PFAS, and presented some data on one of the PFAS mixture problems present in NC waterways. 

Featured Speaker

Sue FentonSuzanne (Sue) Fenton, PhD, MS, is the Group Leader for Reproductive Endocrinology in the National Toxicology Program Laboratory at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. She was formerly a Research Biologist at the US EPA’s Reproductive Toxicology Division for 11 years where she first began her studies on environmental chemicals and risk of adult disease following developmental exposures. She earned her MS and PhD from the University of WI-Madison in the Endocrinology/Reproductive Physiology Program, in the areas of artificial insemination and mammary gland biology, and postdoctoral studies in cancer biology were conducted at the UNC-Chapel Hill Lineberger Cancer Center.

She and her staff/trainees have published numerous manuscripts enhancing the methodology used in mammary gland assessment and determining early life chemical exposures that lead to persistent developmental changes in breast tissue, altered function, or disease susceptibility over the life course. She has received several NIH and EPA-based science awards for her work on perfluorinated chemicals, and numerous other environmental chemicals affecting the developing and lactating breast. Current research also involves chemical effects and their mechanisms of action on tissues that alter breast cancer risk, such as fat and other endocrine targets.

 

This webinar is one in a monthly series sponsored by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment’s EDC Strategies Partnership. The CHE EDC Strategies Partnership is chaired by Carol Kwiatkowski and Katie Pelch (TEDX), Sharyle Patton (Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center), Jerry Heindel (Commonweal Program on Endocrine Disruption Strategies), and Genon Jensen (HEAL) and coordinated by Maria Williams (Collaborative on Health and the Environment, a Commonweal program). To see a full list of past calls and webinars related to EDCs and listen to or view recordings, please visit our partnership page.

This webinar was moderated by Jerry Heindel, PhD, Director of the Commonweal Program on Endocrine Disruption Strategies. It lasted for 40 minutes and was recorded for our call and webinar archive.