FELA: Kidney cancer claims

How PFAS exposure leads to kidney cancer

The kidneys are the primary and most consistent organ in contact with PFAS because they are continually filtering PFAS from the blood. Because of their resistance to biological breakdown, PFAS build up in kidney tissue over time and are not eliminated. Several mechanisms have been identified for this build-up to be carcinogenic:

• Oxidative stress and mitochondrial disruption in kidney tubular cells
• Altered gene expression in kidney tissue that promotes tumor growth environments
• Disruption of hormone signaling pathways that are involved in normal cell regulation

The C8 Health Project, one of the largest PFAS epidemiology studies to date, followed communities exposed to PFOA-contaminated drinking water and found increased risk of kidney cancer with increased levels of PFOA in the blood, with risk increasing proportionally with serum concentration. A meta-analysis of epidemiological studies confirmed a consistent association between PFAS exposure and kidney cancer, with stronger associations in occupational cohorts than in general population studies.

Railroad workers may have been exposed to PFAS through firefighting foam used in emergency response training, contaminated groundwater near industrial rail yards, and legacy contamination at maintenance and storage facilities where PFAS were used in equipment treatments and industrial processes.