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   From: drooler@gmail.com   
      
   The chemicals, called 6:2 FTOH, are now linked to a range of serious   
   health issues, and Americans are still being exposed to them   
      
   Chemical giants DuPont and Daikin knew the dangers of a PFAS compound   
   widely used in food packaging since 2010, but hid them from the public and   
   the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), company studies obtained by the   
   Guardian reveal.   
      
   The chemicals, called 6:2 FTOH, are now linked to a range of serious   
   health issues, and Americans are still being exposed to them in   
   greaseproof pizza boxes, carryout containers, fast-food wrappers, and   
   paperboard packaging.   
      
   Plummeting sperm counts, shrinking penises: toxic chemicals threaten   
   humanity   
   Erin Brockovich   
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   The companies initially told the FDA that the compounds were safer and   
   less likely to accumulate in humans than older types of PFAS, also known   
   as “forever chemicals” and submitted internal studies to support that   
   claim.   
      
   But Daikin withheld a 2009 study that indicated toxicity to lab rats’   
   livers and kidneys, while DuPont in 2012 did not alert the FDA or public   
   to new internal data that indicated that the chemical stays in animals’   
   bodies for much longer than initially thought.   
      
   Science from industry, the FDA and independent researchers now links 6:2   
   FTOH to kidney disease, liver damage, cancer, neurological damage,   
   developmental problems and autoimmune disorders, while researchers also   
   found higher mortality rates among young animals and mothers exposed to   
   the chemicals.   
      
   Had the FDA seen the data, it is unlikely that it would have approved 6:2   
   FTOH, said Maricel Maffini, an independent researcher who studies PFAS in   
   food packaging. And though Daikin may have broken the law, it and DuPont,   
   which has previously been caught hiding studies that suggest toxicity in   
   PFAS, are not facing any repercussions.   
      
   “Those things shouldn’t happen, and if they do then there should be   
   consequences, but oversight is lax,” Maffini said.   
      
   I think people need to be able to rely on the FDA to turn science at the   
   agency into real action, and right now that doesn’t seem to be the case   
   Tom Neltner   
   In 2020, the FDA reached agreements with some major PFAS manufacturers to   
   voluntarily stop using 6:2 FTOH compounds in food packaging within five   
   years. But documents show that the FDA first became aware of DuPont’s   
   hidden study in 2015, and public health advocates say a 10-year timeline   
   to reassess and remove the chemical is unacceptable.   
      
   Moreover, the FDA phase-out only applies to 6:2 FTOH compounds, and does   
   not include other similar “short chain” PFAS, raising questions about   
   whether the agency is fully protecting the public from the class of   
   potentially toxic chemicals.   
      
   “I think people need to be able to rely on the FDA to turn science at the   
   agency into real action, and right now that doesn’t seem to be the case,”   
   said Tom Neltner, chemicals policy director with the Environmental Defense   
   Fund. He and Maffini obtained the companies’ studies and related documents   
   from Daikin’s website and the FDA through Freedom of Information Act   
   requests.   
      
   The 6:2 FTOH compound is part of a newer generation of “short chain” PFAS   
   that were designed to replace older and supposedly more harmful “long   
   chain” PFAS. The industry claims that short chain compounds are uniformly   
   safe and “practically non-toxic”. However, independent researchers like   
   Erika Schreder, science director for Toxic Free Future, have found that   
   PFAS, regardless of chain length, accumulate in the environment and   
   humans, and are toxic.   
      
   “The fact that we continue to uncover evidence that the current-use PFAS   
   have similar toxicity to the [long chain] compounds that have been phased   
   out makes a strong argument for regulating harmful chemicals like PFAS as   
   a class,” Schreder said.   
      
   In a statement to the Guardian, an FDA spokesperson defended the agency’s   
   handling of 6:2 FTOH, noting that the studies “do not demonstrate an   
   imminent health hazard” and more studies were needed to draw concrete   
   conclusions about its safety, and that of other short chain PFAS.   
      
   Daikin and Chemours, a company that in 2015 was spun off from DuPont’s   
   PFAS division, did not respond to requests for comment.   
      
   DuPont hides alarming new data   
   Industry reports and communications among the FDA and PFAS producers   
   between 2008 and 2020 show how a sequence of inadequate chemical safety   
   analyses, hidden studies and lax oversight created a scenario in which   
   Americans continue to be exposed to the dangerous compound in food   
   packaging.   
      
   The 2008 6:2 FTOH studies that DuPont submitted to the FDA monitored the   
   impact of high exposure levels to the chemical on two generations of lab   
   rats. The animals suffered kidney failure, liver damage, mammary gland   
   problems, mottled teeth and other issues. However, DuPont and the FDA felt   
   that humans’ exposure would be much lower and, with little supporting   
   evidence, believed that the short chain PFAS would not accumulate in human   
   bodies, Maffini said.   
      
   She called such studies on PFAS “inaccurate and inappropriate” because the   
   chemicals are toxic at “extremely low levels” and are known to accumulate   
   in animals’ bodies.   
      
   Indeed, the longer-term DuPont study completed in 2012 found that 6:2 FTOH   
   stayed in lab animals’ bodies for longer than previously thought. Still,   
   DuPont did not alert the FDA or publish the study.   
      
   Though the law does not require companies to make such information public,   
   the results strongly suggested a health threat, and DuPont “had an ethical   
   obligation to not just publish it, but flag it for the FDA”, Neltner said.   
      
   Three years later, DuPont partially summarized its 2012 findings in a   
   peer-reviewed 6:2 FTOH study that Maffini said used “cherry-picked” data   
   to support its claim that the compound was safe. Though it omitted the   
   2012 study’s details, communications show it caught the attention of the   
   FDA, which wrote that the study alerted the agency “to potential   
   biopersistence of [6:2 FTOH] and raised potential safety concerns”.   
      
   That triggered a safety review, but the process would drag out for about   
   five years as Americans continued to be exposed.   
      
   Even when DuPont in its 2008 study reported some health problems in lab   
   animals at high exposure levels, it did so in a way that appears designed   
   to confuse, Maffini noted. One passage that revealed that high doses of   
   the chemical lead to blood in rats’ urine read that the doses “resulted in   
   a significant reduction in the number of female rats with blood absent in   
   the urine”.   
      
   Daikin omits damning science   
   The FDA in 2009 approved the Daikin-developed 6:2 FTOH compound for use in   
   food packaging, partly basing the decision on the company’s studies that   
   suggested that the chemical was non-toxic.   
      
   But about 10 years later, Maffini and Neltner discovered that Daikin had   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)