September 18, 2019

Toxics Use Reduction Institute Science Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

September 18^th, 2019

DEP, 1 Winter Street, Boston

12 PM

Members Present: Dave Williams (Chair), Robin Dodson (Vice Chair), Hilary Hackbart, Wendy Heiger-Bernays, Denise Kmetzo, Christy Foran

Members not present: Amy Cannon, Chris Rioux, Ken Weinberg, Heather Lynch

Program staff present: Liz Harriman (TURI), Heather Tenney (TURI), Hayley Byra (TURI), Rich Bizzozero (OTA), Veronica O’Donnell (MADEP), John Raschko (OTA)

Others present: Katherine Robertson (MCTA), Steve Rosario (ACC), Renee Lani (Fluorocouncil), Steve Korziniowski (Fluorocouncil), Carol Holahan (Foley Hoag ACC), Trisha McCarthy (Coyne PC for ACC),

Pre-meeting Presentation on PFAS Degradation & Transport: Rainer Lohmann, URI

 Slide Presentation

Welcome and Introductions

Program Updates

• The Continuing Education Conference will be held November 13^th in Norwood; additional upcoming events are announced on TURI’s postcard mailing (distributed) https://www.turi.org/
• TURI’s FY20 grants have been awarded, for descriptions see https://www.turi.org/Our_Work/Grants/Grant_Projects_Awarded_in_2019
• There are two new employees at TURI: Hayley Byra is the new EHS Specialist and Andrea Lynch is the new Learning Support Specialist
• The HF (hydrofluoric acid) Fact sheet is finalized and includes reported 2017 Higher Hazard Substance data.
• The TUR Planner Course is underway.
• There is a NAS workshop on PFAS in Washington DC on September 26^th; Liz is on the organizing committee and will be attending.
• A Flame Retardant bill is currently being considered in the MA legislature, and was covered in a story in this week’s Boston Globe - it would include a role for the SAB if passed

Approval of May Minutes

The minutes from the last meeting in May were reviewed and there was a vote to approve: 5 in favor, 1 abstaining.

GenX

Heather summarized what the SAB has done on PFAS over the past two years. The board voted previously to list the GenX substances HFPO-DA and its ammonium salt (the two CAS numbers in the EPA draft toxicity assessment). There are two additional substances in the EU SVHC Annex XV report for GenX, the potassium salt and acyl halides. The question is whether we want to include those with the other two GenX associated substances.  There was a motion for discussion of whether to add to the previous recommendation for listing GenX and its ammonium salt to include potassium salt and the acyl halide or make a new recommendation. It was noted that motions from previous meetings cannot be amended.

A motion to recommend to list the salts of HFPO-DA and its acyl halides which are precursors to HFPO-DA. HFPO-DA and its ammonium salts were previously recommended to be listed. Six members voted in favor of the motion and the recommendation was unanimously approved.

ADONA

The ADONA EHS Summary was handed out and reviewed. Nearly all information comes from Gordon 2011 (based on Dyneon/3M studies) which covered a lot of endpoints. Some additional information came from the REACH database (dossier submitted by Dyneon) and has been incorporated into the EHS Summary. Most of the studies were done on a solution of 30% ADONA in water.

Concerns were documented on the White Board as follows:

Persistence:

• Just as persistent

Bioaccumulation:

• Inadequate info 

Mobility:

• Some mobility, question of source, not enough info

Toxicokinetics:

• 23.3 day half-life

Liver:

• Predictive data supports at least as strongly bound to hLFABP and rLFABP (Cheng ’18)
• Would like additional info
• Highest dose liver primary target organ (Gordon ’11)
• PPARa males (Gordon ‘11)
• Liver effects males
• Cholesterol

Reproductive/Developmental:

• Decreased pup weight in highest dose group
• Maternal toxicity@ 270 mg/kg 90 day

Thyroid:

• hypertrophy at 100 mg/kg/day in males, no TSH, T3, or T4

Corrosivity:

• pKa <3

Kidney:

• Target organ female

Oral toxicity:

• Sex differences, all females died in 5 day study

ADONA is as persistent as other PFAS previously reviewed by the board. A member requested that the EPA modeling results in the EHS summary (page 8) be taken out due to it being unreliable and overall the model does not apply well.  Not a lot of information on bioaccumulation - Pan et al looked at various locations with ADONA only found in the Rhine River.  Some evidence of low level (ng/l) mobility. 

Adverse effects on cholesterol found in Gordon 2011 were consistent with other studies.  Concern for maternal toxicity was discussed specifically in the 5-day oral study in the Gordon paper where all female rats died but males survived without exhibiting any signs of toxicity. Some of the mortality findings don’t get discussed in Gordon 2011 and it is uncertain if the dose group was pregnant before they died.  Cheng and Ng paper discussed predictions for binding to liver proteins hLFABP and rLFABP, relative protein binding affinity based on structure.  Based on their molecular predictions, ADONA is at least as strongly bound to lipid protein as other PFAS and can be predictive of effects seen in animal studies. Gordon 2011 provides evidence that at highest doses, liver is the primary target organ.

It was noted that we need to start paying attention to these types of studies as there is an increasing push to use in vitro studies. EPA says they will move to rely on in vitro, predictive models, and computational models in lieu of animal testing. The board discussed their value as screening tools, but they haven’t been considered conclusive enough for decisions.

ADONA seems less reactive than the other substances, but just as persistent.  We would not recommend it be used as an alternative. It was noted that the Gordon paper was written to justify using it as an alternative to PFOS. 

There was further discussion about the class of chemicals due to the similarities that have been identified.

The board reviewed ADONA on September 19, 2019 and they agreed that it followed the patterns of the other PFAS that the SAB has reviewed, such as liver effects, persistence, gender differences, corrosivity, and maternal toxicity. However, available data was not sufficient for a listing decision.  An overall lack of studies, especially cancer, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, thyroid and complete reproductive details was noted. TURI will continue to monitor any new research that may come out.

Next Meeting

TURI has scheduled November 14^th for the next meeting.

Handouts:

-Hydrofluoric Acid Fact Sheet

-TURI “Hot Topics” Info card

-TURI Grant Projects Sheet

-Upcoming TURI Events

-Updated EHS Summary for ADONA

-ECHA 2019 SVHC: Annex XV Report pages 10-16

-TURI 2019: Updated Degradation Examples for ACC Fluorocouncil Webinar Degradation Paths