Registration Opens for First Committee Meeting on Guidance on PFAS Testing and Health Outcomes

On February 4, 2021, the ad hoc committee appointed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) to consider current evidence regarding human health effects of the most widely studied per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) will hold its first meeting.  The National Academies will provide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) “an objective and authoritative review of current evidence regarding human health effects of those PFAS being monitored in the CDC’s National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals.”  The National Academies will also provide recommendations regarding potential changes to CDC and ATSDR PFAS clinical guidance, including:

• Options and considerations to guide decision-making for PFAS testing in a patient’s blood or urine;
• PFAS concentrations that could inform clinical care of exposed patients; and
• Appropriate patient follow-up and care specific to PFAS-associated health endpoints for those patients known or suspected to be exposed to PFAS.

The committee will host multiple town hall events in the spring and summer 2021 to hear from PFAS-impacted communities.  The National Academies intends to release the final report in 2022.