Risk of eternity chemicals
August 27, 2024, 12:25 p.m. | with material from the DZNE (uh)
Blood samples from over 2,500 Germans and Dutch people suggest that young people in particular are contaminated with PFAS.
Traces of PFAS chemicals in human blood apparently lead to high cholesterol levels and thus increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. A German-Dutch study found PFAS in the blood of almost all test subjects, with young people being particularly affected.
Since the invention of PFAS in the 1950s, more than 10,000 different substances from the category of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds have been developed. Because of their water, grease and dirt-repellent properties, they are used in cosmetics and medicine, but also in pan coatings and fire-fighting foam. In addition to their basic chemical structure, PFAS have another thing in common: the so-called eternal chemicals are virtually non-degradable and enter the human food chain primarily via groundwater.
Younger people particularly affected
The findings of researchers at the DZNE (German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases) show the effects of PFAS on human health.
| “We see clear signs of a health risk from PFAS. And we have found that at the same PFAS concentration in the blood, the negative effects are more pronounced in younger subjects than in older ones.” |
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The Director of Population Health Research at the DZNE says that the results of the study also suggest that even relatively low PFAS concentrations in the blood are associated with unfavorable blood lipid profiles.
“Our data show a statistically significant connection between PFAS in the blood and harmful blood lipids that are associated with cardiovascular risk. The higher the PFAS level, the higher the concentration of these lipids. The close correlation supports the suspicion that the PFAS chemicals are the cause of the unfavorable blood lipid profiles,” says the Bonn researcher. It is striking that PFAS could be detected in the blood of almost all test subjects. So you cannot avoid these chemicals.
Blood samples from Bonn and Leiderdorp
The basis for the current study was the “Rhineland Study” of the DZNE – a population-based health study in the Bonn urban area – and the so-called NEO study from the Netherlands (“Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity study”). Blood samples from a total of more than 2,500 women and men between the ages of 30 and 89 were included in the analyses. The most detailed study to date examined the blood samples using complex mass spectrometry.
In their analysis, the researchers focused on three of the most common types of PFAS – PFOA, PFOS and PFHxS – and also determined the concentration of 224 blood lipids, metabolites and amino acids. The researchers were able to demonstrate a connection between the concentration of PFAS and lipids such as cholesterol, which are known to be strong risk factors for cardiovascular disease. There were no significant differences between the samples from Bonn and Leiderdorp.
The study is the most detailed and data-rich study to date on PFAS in the human body: previous studies had already suggested a correlation between PFAS and blood lipids that are harmful to health. “But this connection had not been as clear as in our study,” emphasizes Monique Breteler. Follow-up studies are intended to examine the occurrence of PFAS in individual organs in more detail. (uh)
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