Zürich Statement on Future Actions on Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs).

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are man-made chemicals that contain at least one perfluoroalkyl moiety, [Formula: see text]. To date, over 4,000 unique PFASs have been used in technical applications and consumer products, and some of them have been detected globally in human and wildlife biomonitoring studies. Because of their extraordinary persistence, human and environmental exposure to PFASs will be a long-term source of concern. Some PFASs such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) have been investigated extensively and thus regulated, but for many other PFASs, knowledge about their current uses and hazards is still very limited or missing entirely. To address this problem and prepare an action plan for the assessment and management of PFASs in the coming years, a group of more than 50 international scientists and regulators held a two-day workshop in November, 2017. The group identified both the respective needs of and common goals shared by the scientific and the policy communities, made recommendations for cooperative actions, and outlined how the science-policy interface regarding PFASs can be strengthened using new approaches for assessing and managing highly persistent chemicals such as PFASs. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4158

Para-infectious brain injury in COVID-19 persists at follow-up despite attenuated cytokine and autoantibody responses

To understand neurological complications of COVID-19 better both acutely and for recovery, we measured markers of brain injury, inflammatory mediators, and autoantibodies in 203 hospitalised participants; 111 with acute sera (1–11 days post-admission) and 92 convalescent sera (56 with COVID-19-associated neurological diagnoses). Here we show that compared to 60 uninfected controls, tTau, GFAP, NfL, and UCH-L1 are increased with COVID-19 infection at acute timepoints and NfL and GFAP are significantly higher in participants with neurological complications. Inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-12p40, HGF, M-CSF, CCL2, and IL-1RA) are associated with both altered consciousness and markers of brain injury. Autoantibodies are more common in COVID-19 than controls and some (including against MYL7, UCH-L1, and GRIN3B) are more frequent with altered consciousness. Additionally, convalescent participants with neurological complications show elevated GFAP and NfL, unrelated to attenuated systemic inflammatory mediators and to autoantibody responses. Overall, neurological complications of COVID-19 are associated with evidence of neuroglial injury in both acute and late disease and these correlate with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses acutely

The Effect of Hypo-Hydration on Mood and Cognition Is Influenced by Electrolyte in a Drink and Its Colour: A Randomised Trial

Traditionally, it has been thought necessary to lose 2% of body mass due to dehydration to disrupt functioning, although recently, adverse effects have been reported, with a loss of 0.5%–0.7%. It is, however, unclear whether the response to small reductions in mass reflects dehydration as homeostatic mechanisms are thought to be effective. As psychological responses are most commonly reported, it is strange that the possibility of a placebo response has not been considered. Individuals were therefore subject to a temperature of 30 °C for three hours, and mood and cognition were monitored. To consider changes in hydration status, drinks were compared, differing in their ability to rehydrate due to the presence or absence of electrolytes. The possibility of a placebo response was considered by comparing the response to plain or coloured water. Not drinking was disruptive, although a combination of plain water and electrolyte tended to be the most effective means of preventing a decline in mood, indicating a role for rehydration after a loss of 0.66% body mass. There was, however, also evidence of a placebo response: a combination of plain water and electrolyte tended to be better able to prevent a decline in mood than coloured water and electrolyte

Statistical Analysis of Long-Term Monitoring Data for Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Atmosphere at 20 Monitoring Stations Broadly Indicates Declining Concentrations

During recent decades concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the atmosphere have been monitored at multiple stations worldwide. We used three statistical methods to analyze a total of 748 time series of selected POPs in the atmosphere to determine if there are statistically significant reductions in levels of POPs that have had control actions enacted to restrict or eliminate manufacture, use and emissions. Significant decreasing trends were identified in 560 (75%) of the 748 time series collected from the Arctic, North America, and Europe, indicating that the atmospheric concentrations of these POPs are generally decreasing, consistent with the overall effectiveness of emission control actions. Statistically significant trends in synthetic time series could be reliably identified with the improved Mann-Kendall (iMK) test and the digital filtration (DF) technique in time series longer than 5 years. The temporal trends of new (or emerging) POPs in the atmosphere are often unclear because time series are too short. A statistical detrending method based on the iMK test was not able to identify abrupt changes in the rates of decline of atmospheric POP concentrations encoded into synthetic time series

Zürich Statement on Future Actions on Per - and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs)

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are man-made chemicals that contain at least one perfluoroalkyl moiety,–CnF2n–. To date,over 4,000 unique PFASs have been used in technical applications and consumer products, and some of them have been detected globally in humanand wildlife biomonitoring studies. Because of their extraordinary persistence, human and environmental exposure to PFASs will be a long-termsource of concern. Some PFASs such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) have been investigated extensivelyand thus regulated, but for many other PFASs, knowledge about their current uses and hazards is still very limited or missing entirely. To addressthis problem and prepare an action plan for the assessment and management of PFASs in the coming years, a group of more than 50 internationalscientists and regulators held a two-day workshop in November, 2017. The group identified both the respective needs of and common goals sharedby the scientific and the policy communities, made recommendations for cooperative actions, and outlined how the science–policy interfaceregarding PFASs can be strengthened using new approaches for assessing and managing highly persistent chemicals such as PFASs.ISSN:1552-9924ISSN:0091-676

Zürich Statement on Future Actions on Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs)

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances(PFASs) are man-made chemicals that contain at least one perfluoroalkyl moiety, –CnF2n–. To date, over 4,000 unique PFASs have been used in technical applications and consumer products,and some of them have been detected globally in human and wildlife biomonitoring studies.Because of their extraordinary persistence,human and environmental exposure to PFASs will be a long-term source of concern.Some PFASs such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) have been investigated extensively and thus regulated,but form any other PFASs, knowledge about their current uses and hazards is still very limited or missing entirely. To address this problem and prepare an action plan for the assessment and management of PFASs in the coming years, a group of more than 50 international scientists and regulators held a two-day workshop in November,2017. The group identified both the respective needs of and common goals shared by the scientific and the policy communities, made recommendations for cooperative actions, and outlined how the science–policy interface regarding PFASs can be strengthened using new approaches for assessing and managing highly persistent chemicals such as PFASs.JRC.F.3-Chemicals Safety and Alternative Method