Prenatal exposure to a class of dangerous, widely used chemicals could be linked to your child having high blood pressure as a teen, according to a new study.
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS — sometimes called “forever chemicals” because they don’t fully break down in the environment — are a class of about 15,000 human-made chemicals linked to cancers, endocrine-related conditions and developmental problems in children.
New data shows the synthetic compounds could also be linked to a teen’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease later in life, according to the study published Thursday in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers looked at data from 1,094 children over an average of 12 years. The study team compared measurements of eight types of PFAS chemicals in maternal plasma samples 24 to 72 hours after birth and the children’s blood pressure from medical records, according to the study.
The kids who were exposed to higher levels of PFAS chemicals in utero were more likely to have higher blood pressure in childhood and adolescence, the research found. The connection was particularly strong in adolescents, male children and Black children, said senior study author Dr. Mingyu Zhang, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
High blood pressure in teens
The study is observational, meaning that while it shows associations, it cannot prove that PFAS exposure is the cause of the elevated blood pressure, Zhang said.
While researchers did adjust for other factors that could be at play, there could be other elements driving the connection between PFAS and blood pressure, he added.
That said, the results are strong because this study is one of the largest and most diverse while also using rigorous methods, said Dr. Carmen Marsit, Rollins Distinguished Professor of Research at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta. He was not involved in the research.
The topic is important to investigate because if a child has high blood pressure, they are more likely to also have higher blood pressure later on, Zhang said. And that is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 cause of death in the United States.
The largest effects were shown in adolescents who were exposed to a mixture of different PFAS chemicals during pregnancy compared with those who were not, which implies that there may be a synergistic impact on cardiometabolic health, Marsit said.
“Most children will be exposed to multiple different PFAS chemicals, so this is worrisome,” he said.
The fact that adolescence is the age when prenatal exposure to PFAS is most linked with higher blood pressure suggests that some of the PFAS chemicals could take a long period of time to show their impacts, Marsit said.
A long latency of the effects would mean that people don’t just need to worry about reducing exposures, but interventions also need to be developed to prevent the health outcomes in people who were exposed earlier, he added.
How to reduce your exposure to PFAS
Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey shows that this class of chemicals can be found in nearly every person in the United States, Marsit said
There are things you can do to reduce your exposure, however, he added.
Major sources of exposure include food, water, and waterproof or stain-resistant items, Marsit said.
Helpful steps include drinking filtered water –– using filters like those listed by the Environmental Working Group –– out of metal or glass containers, he said. Plastics contain PFAS and other toxic chemicals, Marsit said.
A focus on fresh food can also help, as packaging for foods are often coated in PFAS chemicals, he added. And avoid using nonstick cookware, opting instead for metal, cast-iron or ceramic pots and pans, he said.
