Human Biomonitoring, Exposure Assessment and Quantitative Analysis of PFASs

Dear Colleagues,

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a large class of thousands of synthetic organofluorine chemical compounds used in various industrial applications. Due to their physical and chemical properties, these substances are toxic to humans and the environment. Because of their toxicological characteristics, these substances pose a threat to the environment and to human health all over the globe. Several negative effects on human health are well-known, including neurotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, carcinogenicity, immunotoxicity, and cardiovascular diseases. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are two of the most studied long-chain PFASs. PFOS, its salts, and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride (PFOS-F) were listed in 2009 under Annex B to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). In 2019 and then in 2022, PFOA and PFHxS, together with their salts and related compounds, were also included in Annex A. In November 2023, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified PFOA as “carcinogenic to humans (Group 1)” and PFOS as “possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B)”.

In order to provide a more accurate assessment of PFASs' impact on human health, this Special Issue offers an opportunity to publish high-quality papers that focus on the characterization and assessment of human exposure through increasingly effective analytical techniques.

We will accept manuscripts from different topics, including human exposure, risk and health impact assessment, risk communication, risk management, PFASs and climate change, novel PFASs, and human health protection. This Special Issue aims to describe the state of the art and to develop intervention strategies for chronic disease prevention and population health.

Dr. Annalisa Abballe
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.