March 20, 2023 – A recent study suggests that recent government efforts to limit human exposure to hormone-disrupting “forever chemicals” may miss their mark and fail to offer much protection.
That's because researchers found that it's the mixture of drugs that becomes toxic to humans, and current efforts are aimed toward regulating the substances on a chemical basis. The study raised further concerns since it increased children's exposure to the substances and located concentrations which are toxic for development.
The synthetic chemicals, called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are often called PFAS and are widely utilized in consumer and industrial products. PFAS break down slowly and may accumulate within the environment and human tissue.
“Our findings were surprising and have broad implications for policymakers seeking to mitigate risks,” said lead writer Jesse A. Goodrich, PhD, assistant professor on the Keck School of Medicine on the University of Southern California, in a opinion“We found that exposure to a combination of PFAS not only disrupted lipid and amino acid metabolism, but also altered thyroid hormone function.”
The authors explained that their study was the primary to look at the consequences of PFAS as a mix (which more realistically corresponds to a typical exposure), whereas previous studies examined the consequences of a single PFAS in isolation. The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced the regulation of six PFAS in drinking water. There are Thousands various PFAS, says the EPA.
The study was published last month within the magazine Environmental health perspectives. The researchers analyzed blood samples from two groups of youngsters and adolescents. All 449 young people had a combination of common PFAS of their blood that altered metabolism and thyroid function in ways which have been shown to affect development and likewise increase the chance of adult diseases comparable to diabetes, cardiovascular problems and cancer.
The authors noted that based on the age range of the youngsters studied, they concluded that efforts to control certain PFAS within the early 2000s didn't actually protect people from exposure.
“This trend may indicate that the toxicological effects of PFAS exposure are related to total PFAS levels rather than to individual PFAS compounds,” they wrote. “Our results support the argument that PFAS should be regulated as a chemical class rather than on a chemical-by-chemical basis.”