Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are used since 1940’s in a wide range of consumer products and industrial applications. This family, currently estimated at more than 5,000 substances, includes substances that are ubiquitous, highly persistent and highly toxic to humans (e.g., PFOA and PFOS). Biomonitoring data show that the general population is impregnated by PFAS, and environmental exposure to PFAS thus became a growing concern for public health due their toxicity in humans. In spite of their use for decades, PFAS are considered emerging substances due to the lack of data regarding more than 99% of their congeners. Toxicological data sufficient to derive reference doses (i.e. doses deemed to be safe for human health) became available for some PFAS in the last decade, and several public health agencies around the world recently came up with health-based limit values in drinking water and/or other environmental media (e.g., food, soil).

The aim of this presentation is to briefly address the state of the science for PFAS regarding their toxicity endpoints, the most recent (>2016) hazard assessments, biomonitoring data in North America, and health-based values in drinking water and environmental media, as well as the ongoing programs aimed to assess the hazard, exposure and/or risks to human health posed by PFAS and their precursors.

Severine Louis, Sanexen services environnementaux inc.

The Health Canada Water and Air Quality Bureau (WAQB) is responsible for promoting and protecting the health of Canadians with matters related to drinking water. The presentation will focus on the development process of Canadian drinking water guidelines for PFOS and PFOA, which establishes maximum allowable concentrations of PFOS and PFOA in drinking water an includes considerations for additivity of the two substances. Moreover, screening values for PFAS as additional means of protecting Canadians near PFAS contaminated sites will be presented.

Richard Carrier, Head, Chemical Assessment Section, Water and Air Quality Bureau, Health Canada
Richard Carrier is the Head of the Chemical Assessment Section of the Water and Air Quality Bureau at Health Canada.

PFAS have been in the spotlight for several years now as the science evolves to address data gaps related to this family of thousands of known substances. Health Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada have developed guidelines and screening values for a variety of individual PFAS in order to respond to an urgent need for values for use in screening site data. We will present the currently available guidelines and screening values for PFAS for the protection of human health along with information on their derivation, their application, and their limitations, as well as an update on future publications.

Darcy Longpré, Risk Assessment Specialist, Health Canada
Darcy Longpré is a risk assessment specialist with Health Canada. She has over 20 years of experience working on contaminated sites issues and human health guideline development. She is the Health Canada representative on the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment’s (CCME) Soil Quality Guidelines Working Group.