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Mammalian toxicity of trifluoroacetate and assessment of human health risks due to environmental exposures

  • Molecular Toxicology
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Abstract

While trifluoroacetic acid has limited technical uses, the highly water-soluble trifluoroacetate (TFA) is reported to be present in water bodies at low concentrations. Most of the TFA in the environment is discussed to arise from natural processes, but also with the contribution from decomposition of environmental chemicals. The presence of TFA may result in human exposures. For hazard and risk assessment, the mammalian toxicity of TFA and human exposures are reviewed to assess the margin of exposures (MoE). The potential of TFA to induce acute toxicity is very low and oral repeated dose studies in rats have identified the liver as the target organ with mild liver hypertrophy as the lead effect. Biomarker analyses indicate that TFA is a weak peroxisome proliferator in rats. TFA administered to rats did not induce adverse effects in an extended one-generation study and in a developmental toxicity study or induce genotoxic responses. Based on recent levels of TFA in water and diet, MoEs for human exposures to TFA are well above 100 and do not indicate health risks.

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Data availability

The datasets analysed during the current study are available in the cited references/web sites.

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Acknowledgements

Preparation of this review was supported by Honeywell. The support was provided to Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Dekant, a retired Professor of Toxicology at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the University of Würzburg.

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  1. Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Würzburg, Versbacherstr. 9, 97078, Würzburg, Germany

    Wolfgang Dekant & Raphael Dekant

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  1. Wolfgang Dekant
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Conceptualization, WD; writing—original draft preparation, RD, WD; writing—review and editing: RD, WD; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Wolfgang Dekant.

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Wolfgang Dekant: Retired.

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Dekant, W., Dekant, R. Mammalian toxicity of trifluoroacetate and assessment of human health risks due to environmental exposures. Arch Toxicol 97, 1069–1077 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-023-03454-y

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