Early data from the EPA’s ongoing studies of two of the newer types of so-called forever chemicals shows they can harm laboratory animals exposed in the womb, which suggests they also could harm people.
Hexafluoropropylene oxide-dimer acid, known as GenX, and nafion byproduct 2, known as NBP2, “produce neonatal mortality” similar to older, hazardous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that largely have been phased out of U.S. production, said Justin Conley, a reproductive research biologist with the Environmental Protection Agency.
The deaths occurred to laboratory rats exposed in the womb known as pups. In the mid-2000s, similar results from...