Exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) during childhood can affect bone development in children during adolescence, according to a new study published in . Journal of the Endocrine Society.
PFAS are synthetic chemicals found in water, food, and everyday products. Many of these “permanent chemicals” remain in the environment and in the human body and can interfere with normal development, such as bone growth.
“Adolescence is a critical period for building strong bones, and achieving optimal bone mass during this period can reduce the lifelong risk of fractures and osteoporosis,” said Dr. Jesse P. Buckley of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “Our findings suggest that reducing exposure to PFAS during key developmental periods may support healthier bones throughout life.”
The authors studied blood PFAS concentrations in 218 teenagers at birth and from prospective pregnancy and birth cohorts at ages 3, 8, and 12 years. They measured bone density at age 12 and found that teens with higher blood levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) had lower bone density in their forearms.
For other PFAS, associations with bone mineral density vary depending on the timing of exposure, suggesting that certain developmental stages may be particularly vulnerable. The association between PFAS levels and reduced bone density was stronger in women than in men.
“These findings further support the evidence that early-life PFAS exposure can have long-term health effects and highlight the importance of efforts to reduce contamination of drinking water and consumer products,” Buckley said.
Other study authors are Katherine Marques of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland; Joseph Brown of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Antonia Calafato of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia; Kim Cecil, Halley Wasserman, Yingying Xu, and Kimberly Yolton of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio; Aiming Chen of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania); Bruce Lanphear, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. and Jordan Kuiper of the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health in Washington, DC.
This research was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Research. “Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances and bone mineral density in adolescents: Evaluation of the sensitive period” has been published online.
