At a glance
| Chemical family | Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) — a cyclic 1,3-dioxolane perfluorinated ether-carboxylate; a short-chain fluoropolymer-manufacturing processing aid (fluorosurfactant) developed as the plant-level replacement for PFOA |
| CAS number | 1190931-27-1 (ammonium salt, the manufactured form; acid form 1190931-41-9) |
| IUPAC name | azanium 2,2-difluoro-2-{[2,2,4,5-tetrafluoro-5-(trifluoromethoxy)-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl]oxy}acetate (ammonium salt); a cyclic 1,3-dioxolane ether-carboxylate |
| Molecular formula / weight | C6H4F9NO6 (ammonium salt); molecular weight approximately 357 g/mol; PubChem CID 154735201; highly water-soluble (reported >667 g/L) |
| Classification | Not classified by IARC. Registered under EU REACH (EEA manufacture/import band 1–10 tonnes/year); no individual REACH SVHC (Candidate List) entry located Regulatory — status to VERIFY. No compound-specific drinking-water limit anywhere; only the EU Drinking Water Directive grouped PFAS values apply. Manufacturer: Solvay Specialty Polymers, Spinetta Marengo (Alessandria), Italy |
| Where you encounter it | Not a bedroom or consumer-product exposure. Environmental only: groundwater and surface water (the River Po and its basin) downstream of the Spinetta Marengo plant, and the aquatic food chain of the northern Adriatic / Venice Lagoon. Highest levels are close to the single industrial source |
| Sleep micro environment relevance | None by the indoor-air route. There is no evidence cC6O4 off-gasses from mattresses, foam, or textiles, and no documented household pathway. Its relevance to Embr is as a PFAS case study — what happens when a "safer" PFOA substitute reaches drinking water before it is well characterised |
| Activated carbon capture | Not a VOC — not captured by air-phase carbon. For water, short-chain PFAS like this are more reliably removed by anion-exchange resin and high-pressure membranes (reverse osmosis / nanofiltration) than by granular activated carbon, which is weaker for short-chain species. Inferred from general short-chain-PFAS removal literature; a cC6O4-specific removal study was not located — VERIFY |
Regulatory & certification status
Where cC6O4 / C6O4 stands across the major regulatory systems, and the certifications a bedroom product might carry. Because this is an industrial water contaminant rather than a bedroom emission, most of these systems either address it only as part of the wider PFAS class or do not name it at all. Where a jurisdiction has no specific measure, that is stated plainly rather than left blank.
| European Union | Registered under REACH, with an EEA manufacture/import band of 1–10 tonnes per year. On the sources reviewed there is no individual Candidate-List (SVHC) entry for cC6O4, and no Annex XIV (Authorisation) or Annex XVII (Restriction) measure specific to it; it would be captured by the proposed EU-wide universal PFAS restriction, which is still in development and has not been adopted. Under the Drinking Water Directive (EU) 2020/2184 it is covered only by the grouped values — "PFAS Total" 0.50 µg/L and "Sum of PFAS" (20 substances) 0.10 µg/L — with no compound-specific limit; whether cC6O4 is on the sum-of-20 list is to be confirmed. Regulatory — SVHC and ∑20 status to VERIFY — ECHA · EU DWD |
| Italy (source region) | The compound's regulatory life is concentrated here. ARPA Veneto has detected elevated cC6O4 in groundwater and in the River Po as part of its PFAS monitoring programme. ARPA Piemonte monitors it near the Solvay site at Spinetta Marengo, where it has exceeded the plant's Integrated Environmental Authorisation (AIA) limit. There is no compound-specific maximum contaminant level; oversight runs through site permits and regional monitoring rather than a national drinking-water standard. Regulatory — ARPA Veneto · ARPA Piemonte |
| United States | cC6O4 is not on any individual US federal schedule. It is not among the six PFAS given specific Maximum Contaminant Levels in the 2024 EPA drinking-water rule, and it is not on the California Proposition 65 list. As a PFAS it would fall within the class covered by the 2023 TSCA Section 8(a)(7) PFAS reporting rule, but no US measure names it individually. Regulatory — no individual US listing located; VERIFY — US EPA |
| Canada | Not regulated individually in Canada. It would fall within the broad PFAS class that Environment and Climate Change Canada has been moving to manage, but no Canadian instrument reviewed names cC6O4 specifically. Regulatory — no individual Canadian listing located; VERIFY — ECCC |
| Australia | Not individually scheduled. Australia's IChEMS prohibitions target PFOA, PFOS and PFHxS; cC6O4 is not named among them, and the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines derive no health-based value for it. Regulatory — no individual Australian listing located; VERIFY — AICIS |
| United Kingdom | No GB/UK REACH measure specific to cC6O4 was located. Unlike HFPO-DA (which carried over onto the UK Candidate List), cC6O4 does not appear to have an individual UK SVHC entry on the sources reviewed. Regulatory — no individual UK listing located; VERIFY — HSE |
| Certifications | No mattress or textile certification screens for cC6O4 by name. CertiPUR-US targets ozone depleters, specific flame retardants, heavy metals, formaldehyde, phthalates and VOC emissions in polyurethane foam — not a fluorinated water contaminant. OEKO-TEX Standard 100 added a total-fluorine limit (as a general PFAS indicator) in 2024, so a finished textile would be screened for residual PFAS overall, but not for this compound specifically. GREENGUARD certifies low VOC emissions and would not detect a non-volatile fluorinated substance. Industry — CertiPUR-US · OEKO-TEX |
| The 72-hour test window | Missed entirely. cC6O4 is a non-volatile, highly water-soluble contaminant, not an off-gassing VOC, so a short (~72-hour) product emissions chamber test does not capture it. It is detected only by targeted aqueous LC-MS/MS PFAS analysis of water — a different measurement from anything a bedroom-product test performs. Inferred — from the compound's non-volatile water-contaminant profile versus the VOC focus of chamber tests |
What it is
cC6O4 is a cyclic 1,3-dioxolane per/polyfluorinated ether-carboxylate — in plain terms, a small ring-shaped fluorosurfactant carrying a carboxylate group. The manufactured, traded form is the ammonium salt, CAS 1190931-27-1 (the free acid is CAS 1190931-41-9); its molecular formula is C6H4F9NO6 and its molecular weight is roughly 357 g/mol. It is extremely water-soluble, which is central to its environmental story: once released, it dissolves and travels. Regulatory — physical-chemical data from the REACH registration
Solvay Specialty Polymers introduced cC6O4 around 2011–2012 as a polymerisation processing aid at Spinetta Marengo, replacing PFOA (whose salt, APFO, the industry was phasing out). The pitch mirrored GenX and ADONA: a shorter-chain, lower-bioaccumulation fluorochemical that would do the same manufacturing job with less biological staying power. That framing is only partly borne out — cC6O4 is still a PFAS, with the same intact carbon-fluorine bonds and the same class-defining environmental persistence.
Where you encounter it
Plainly: not in your bedroom. There is no evidence cC6O4 is present in mattresses, foam, pillows, or bedroom textiles, and no indoor off-gassing route. Every documented exposure is environmental and downstream of a single industrial point source.
That source is the Solvay plant at Spinetta Marengo. From there, cC6O4 has entered local groundwater, the Bormida–Po river system, and — carried by the Po's discharge — the northern Adriatic and the Venice Lagoon. The exposure question it raises is not "what is off-gassing beside my bed?" but "what reached the regional water and food supply before anyone characterised it?" That is why it belongs in this Atlas as a regrettable-substitution case study rather than as a sleep-environment contaminant: the mechanism that made PFOA a household name — an industrial fluorochemical escaping a plant into drinking water — repeated with its intended replacement.
What the research says
The independent literature on cC6O4 is thin but pointed, and it does not support a clean "safer substitute" conclusion.
Water concentrations. A 2023 critical review of nine years of environmental data reported a maximum of around 52,000 ng/L close to the Spinetta Marengo site, with concentrations across the wider Po watershed generally below 1,000 ng/L — a steep gradient consistent with a single dominant source. Peer-reviewed — Bizzotto et al. 2023, reviewing ARPA monitoring data
Reach and mobility. A 2021 study of the Manila clam (Ruditapes philippinarum) found cC6O4 together with PFOA in clam soft tissue in the Venice Lagoon, an area with no local point source — evidence that cC6O4 disperses about as readily through water as PFOA does. Peer-reviewed — Bernardini et al. 2021
Bioaccumulation versus effect. In that same clam study cC6O4 accumulated roughly five times less than PFOA in tissue — the property it was designed for — yet it produced similar transcriptomic and gut-microbiota changes, affecting pathways linked to immune response, apoptosis, nervous-system development and lipid metabolism. The authors concluded the substitution does not clearly reduce ecological risk: lower body burden did not translate into lower molecular effect. Peer-reviewed — Bernardini et al. 2021
Human-cell toxicology (limited, mixed). On human thyroid cells in vitro, cC6O4 did not reduce cell viability or impair iodide uptake the way PFOA did, appearing less thyroid-active on that narrow endpoint. Peer-reviewed — Coperchini et al. 2021 A later comparison of legacy and new-generation PFAS on thyroid cells reached broadly the same picture. Peer-reviewed — De Toni et al. 2022 These are narrow, single-tissue findings, not a clean bill of health across endpoints.
What helps reduce exposure
This is a source-control and regulatory problem far more than a household one — the meaningful lever is emission limits at the plant, not a device on your tap. Where treatment does apply, the short-chain chemistry matters:
Anion-exchange resin and high-pressure membranes (reverse osmosis or nanofiltration) are the more reliable options for short-chain PFAS in water. Inferred from general short-chain-PFAS removal literature; a cC6O4-specific removal study was not located — VERIFY
Granular activated carbon (GAC) works, but is weaker for short-chain species like cC6O4 than for long-chain PFOA and PFOS, so it should not be relied on alone for this compound. Inferred — the short-chain vs long-chain GAC performance gap is well established for PFAS generally; not measured for cC6O4 specifically
What does NOT help
- Boiling water. Concentrates rather than removes PFAS — as water evaporates, the compound stays behind in a smaller volume. Inferred from established PFAS behaviour
- Standard carbon pitcher filters. Unreliable for short-chain PFAS; without a specific, certified PFAS-reduction claim they should not be assumed to remove cC6O4. Inferred from short-chain-PFAS filtration literature
- Avoiding bedroom products or "PFAS-free" bedding as a mitigation for this compound. The exposure route here is regional water, not bedding — no consumer-product swap changes it.
Open research questions
- The toxicology is sparse and mostly short-term. Whether cC6O4 meaningfully reduces harm relative to the PFOA it replaced is genuinely contested — the clam evidence suggests it may not. Speculation — the net risk comparison is unresolved
- Bioaccumulation in the edible Manila clam is documented, but the human dietary implications for people who eat lagoon shellfish have not been quantified. Speculation re: dietary human exposure
- The regulatory gap is the recurring theme: cC6O4 was registered and in commerce faster than it was characterised, with no compound-specific drinking-water limit and an evolving SVHC/restriction status. Inferred from the current PFAS regulatory landscape
- Long-range transport and environmental fate outside the immediate Po basin — including any breakdown products — remain largely unstudied. Speculation
Where you meet Cc6O4 across your home
The same compound turns up in more than one place you live. Here's where it shows up in Embr — each links to the full breakdown for that part of your home.
What actually reduces your exposure
- cC6O4 is an environmental / drinking-water exposure downstream of one Italian production site, not a bedroom source.
- It is a case study in 'regrettable substitution' — a PFOA replacement that spread through water about as readily as PFOA.
- Anion exchange and reverse osmosis are more reliable than carbon for short-chain fluoroethers.
How it’s regulated, by region
| Region | Status | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| European Union | Registered, class-covered | REACH-registered (1-10 t/yr); no compound-specific drinking-water limit (only the DWD grouped parameters); would fall under the in-progress EU universal PFAS restriction. |
| Italy | Monitored | ARPA Veneto and ARPA Piemonte monitor cC6O4 in groundwater and the Po; it has exceeded the plant's integrated environmental authorization (AIA) limit near the source. |
Citations
- Bernardini I, Matozzo V, Valsecchi S, Peruzza L, Rovere GD, Polesello S, Iori S, Marin MG, Fabrello J, Ciscato M, Masiero L, Bonato M, Santovito G, Boffo L, Bargelloni L, Milan M, Patarnello T (2021). The new PFAS C6O4 and its effects on marine invertebrates: First evidence of transcriptional and microbiota changes in the Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum. Environment International, 152:106484. PMID 33740673. DOI 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106484 Peer-reviewed — clam transcriptomic + microbiota effects; ~5× lower accumulation than PFOA
- Bizzotto EC, Villa S, Vighi M (2023). Nine years of environmental occurrence and ecotoxicological data of the emerging PFAS C6O4: a critical review. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 19(6):1636-1650. DOI 10.1002/ieam.4830 Peer-reviewed — environmental occurrence review, incl. ARPA water data (max ~52,000 ng/L near source)
- Coperchini F, Croce L, Pignatti P, Ricci G, Gangemi D, Magri F, Imbriani M, Rotondi M, Chiovato L (2021). The new generation PFAS C6O4 does not produce adverse effects on thyroid cells in vitro. Journal of Endocrinological Investigation, 44(8):1625-1635. PMID 33315184. DOI 10.1007/s40618-020-01466-4 Peer-reviewed — thyroid cells in vitro; less active than PFOA on this endpoint
- De Toni L, Di Nisio A, Rocca MS, Pedrucci F, Garolla A, Dall'Acqua S, Guidolin D, Ferlin A, Foresta C (2022). Comparative evaluation of the effects of legacy and new generation perfluoralkyl substances (PFAS) on thyroid cells in vitro. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 13:915096. PMID 35813651. DOI 10.3389/fendo.2022.915096 Peer-reviewed — legacy vs new PFAS on thyroid cells
- European Chemicals Agency. C6O4 ammonium salt — REACH registered substance, EEA manufacture/import band 1–10 tonnes per year. No individual SVHC (Candidate List) entry located as of this review. echa.europa.eu Regulatory — SVHC status to VERIFY
- Directive (EU) 2020/2184 on the quality of water intended for human consumption (recast). Grouped PFAS parametric values: "PFAS Total" 0.50 µg/L; "Sum of PFAS" (20 substances) 0.10 µg/L. No compound-specific limit for C6O4. eur-lex.europa.eu Regulatory — inclusion in the sum-of-20 to VERIFY
- ARPA Veneto. PFAS environmental monitoring programme, including detection of C6O4 in Veneto groundwater and in the River Po. arpa.veneto.it Regulatory
- ARPA Piemonte. Monitoring of C6O4 near the Solvay Specialty Polymers site at Spinetta Marengo (Alessandria), including exceedance of the plant's Integrated Environmental Authorisation (AIA) limit. arpa.piemonte.it Regulatory
Frequently asked questions
Is cC6O4 (C6O4) in my mattress or bedroom?
No evidence of that. cC6O4 is an industrial fluoropolymer-manufacturing processing aid, not a bedding or foam ingredient and not something that off-gasses from a mattress. The documented exposure route is entirely environmental: contaminated groundwater, surface water and the food chain downstream of one Solvay plant at Spinetta Marengo in northern Italy. It sits in this Atlas as a PFOA-replacement case study, not as a bedroom air contaminant.
Is C6O4 safer than the PFOA it replaced?
Only partly, and it is disputed. On a narrow thyroid-cell endpoint C6O4 did not reduce cell viability or impair iodide uptake the way PFOA did, and it accumulated roughly five times less than PFOA in clam tissue. But it is just as mobile in water and produced similar molecular effects (transcriptomic and gut-microbiota changes) in the same clam study, so researchers concluded the substitution does not clearly reduce ecological risk. Like PFOA it is a persistent "forever chemical".
Where has C6O4 been found?
In groundwater and the River Po in northern Italy, with the highest concentrations near the Solvay plant at Spinetta Marengo — up to about 52,000 ng/L close to the source, and generally below 1,000 ng/L across the wider Po basin. It has also been measured downstream in the soft tissue of Manila clams in the Venice Lagoon, an area with no local point source, showing it spreads about as readily as PFOA.
Is cC6O4 a "forever chemical"?
Yes. cC6O4 is a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS). Even as a short-chain replacement designed to bioaccumulate less than PFOA, it shares the class-defining carbon-fluorine bond persistence, so it does not meaningfully break down in the environment and behaves as a "forever chemical".
Related compounds
Embr is a sleep environment company researching the chemistry of the bedroom. See the methodology page for how this Atlas tags claims by evidence strength. For broader context on PFAS exposure pathways, see PFAS in 2026 and non-toxic bedroom.
Last reviewed 2026-07-14. If you find a factual error, contact us.