PFAS Environmental Pollution and Antioxidant Responses: An Overview of the Impact on Human Field

Abstract

Due to their unique properties, perfluorinated substances (PFAS) are widely used in multiple industrial and commercial applications, but they are toxic for animals, humans included. This review presents some available data on the PFAS environmental distribution in the world, and in particular in Europe and in the Veneto region of Italy, where it has become a serious problem for human health. The consumption of contaminated food and drinking water is considered one of the major source of exposure for humans. Worldwide epidemiological studies report the negative effects that PFAS have on human health, due to environmental pollution, including infertility, steroid hormone perturbation, thyroid, liver and kidney disorders, and metabolic disfunctions. In vitro and in vivo researches correlated PFAS exposure to oxidative stress effects (in mammals as well as in other vertebrates of human interest), produced by a PFAS-induced increase of reactive oxygen species formation. The cellular antioxidant defense system is activated by PFAS, but it is only partially able to avoid the oxidative damage to biomolecules.

Keywords: antioxidant defenses; environmental pollution; epidemiology; human health; oxidative stress; perfluorinated substances; reactive oxygen species; toxicology.

Figure 1

Pathways of PFAS into the environment and their fate. Adapted from Ahrens [53]. STP = sewage treatment plant.

Figure 2

Contaminated (in dark grey) and uncontaminated (in light grey) municipalities on the basis of the Italian National Health Institute (ISS) performance limits in drinking water in the Veneto region. In many municipalities (in white) no analyzes were carried out [120].