Best Known PFAS Causes Human Cancer, Global Health Agency Finds

Perfluorooctanoic acid, the type of PFAS featured in Hollywood’s ‘Dark Waters’ legal thriller starring Mark Ruffalo and named in thousands of lawsuits, causes human cancer, a World Health Organization agency said Thursday.

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), another PFAS that’s also the subject of nationwide toxic tort litigation, is “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” according to an independent scientific panel convened last month by WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

IARC’s conclusions were published in the Lancet Oncology, a scientific journal, which is the agency’s typical way of releasing its findings.

Both chemicals are among the most studied types of ...