Dioxins vs. PFAS: Science and Policy Challenges

Dioxin-like chemicals are a group of ubiquitous environmental toxicants that received intense attention in the last two decades of the 20th century. Through extensive mechanistic research and validation, the global community has agreed upon a regulatory strategy for these chemicals that centers on their common additive activation of a single receptor. Applying these regulations has led to decreased exposure in most populations studied. As dioxin-like chemicals moved out of the limelight, research and media attention has turned to other concerning contaminants, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). During the 20th century, PFAS were also being quietly emitted into the environment, but only in the last 20 years have we realized the serious threat they pose to health. There is active debate about how to appropriately classify and regulate the thousands of known PFAS and finding a solution for these "forever chemicals" is of the utmost urgency.

Here, we compare important features of dioxin-like chemicals and PFAS, including the history, mechanism of action, and effective upstream regulatory strategies, with the objective of gleaning insight from the past to improve strategies for addressing PFAS.

The differences between these two chemical classes means that regulatory strategies for dioxin-like chemicals will not be appropriate for PFAS. PFAS exert toxicity by both receptor-based and nonreceptor-based mechanisms, which complicates mixtures evaluation and stymies efforts to develop inexpensive assays that accurately capture toxicity. Furthermore, dioxin-like chemicals were unwanted byproducts, but PFAS are useful and valuable, which has led to intense resistance against efforts to restrict their production. Nonetheless, useful lessons can be drawn from dioxin-like chemicals and applied to PFAS, including eliminating nonessential production of new PFAS and proactive investment in environmental remediation to address their extraordinarily long environmental persistence. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP14449.