Latest news with #ZeyuLi
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
‘Forever chemicals' exposure before birth raises the risk of high blood pressure in teenage years
'Forever chemicals' may be taking their toll on our health before we are even born, new research suggests. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a group of chemicals used in everyday products like food packaging and non-stick cookware. They're known as 'forever chemicals' because they don't degrade easily and can build up in the environment – and in our bodies. Scientists have detected PFAS in people's blood, breast milk, semen, livers, and even brains. They suspect these chemicals harm human health, with studies linking them to higher cholesterol, some cancers, and fertility problems, among other issues. The new research adds another complication to that list: high blood pressure during adolescence. Related Forever chemicals: Brussels' mission to clean up Europe's water The analysis followed more than 1,000 children in the US. It used maternal plasma collected shortly after they were born to identify their level of prenatal PFAS exposure, and matched it to doctors' records up until their 18th birthdays. Prenatal exposure to PFAS was linked to a higher risk of developing high blood pressure later in childhood, particularly in the teenage years, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The findings indicate that 'these forever chemicals can have long-lasting and potentially harmful effects that may only become apparent years after birth,' Zeyu Li, the study's lead author and a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in the US, said in a statement. The risk of elevated blood pressure was even higher for boys and Black children with higher PFAS levels at birth, the study found. Related How 'dangerous chemicals' detected in products in the EU could be impacting your health In a surprise to researchers, a handful of forever chemicals were actually linked to lower diastolic, or bottom number, blood pressure in early childhood, though that changed when they entered their teenage years. Evidence on the health effects of PFAS has been mixed so far. While researchers believe these chemicals pose risks, it's difficult to pinpoint their exact impact because there are thousands of PFAS that could all interact in different ways, and because people's exposure changes over time. Even so, Li said the latest study underscores the need for researchers to track people's health and their PFAS levels over a long period of time, from early childhood to adolescence and beyond. Related How to avoid 'forever chemicals': 5 items you should stop using to minimise exposure to PFAS Meanwhile, Mingyu Zhang, the study's senior author and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, said stronger environmental protections are needed to protect people from PFAS, given they are so ubiquitous that people cannot meaningfully limit their exposure on their own. That could include phasing out forever chemicals from consumer products and in industrial settings, he said, as well as better surveillance and limits on PFAS in water systems. 'This is not something individuals can solve on their own,' Zhang said.
Euronews
2 days ago
- Health
- Euronews
‘Forever chemicals' exposure before birth raises teenage health risks
'Forever chemicals' may be taking their toll on our health before we are even born, new research suggests. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a group of chemicals used in everyday products like food packaging and non-stick cookware. They're known as 'forever chemicals' because they don't degrade easily and can build up in the environment – and in our bodies. Scientists have detected PFAS in people's blood, breast milk, semen, livers, and even brains. They suspect these chemicals harm human health, with studies linking them to higher cholesterol, some cancers, and fertility problems, among other issues. The new research adds another complication to that list: high blood pressure during adolescence. The analysis followed more than 1,000 children in the US. It used maternal plasma collected shortly after they were born to identify their level of prenatal PFAS exposure, and matched it to doctors' records up until their 18th birthdays. Prenatal exposure to PFAS was linked to a higher risk of developing high blood pressure later in childhood, particularly in the teenage years, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The findings indicate that 'these forever chemicals can have long-lasting and potentially harmful effects that may only become apparent years after birth,' Zeyu Li, the study's lead author and a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in the US, said in a statement. The risk of elevated blood pressure was even higher for boys and Black children with higher PFAS levels at birth, the study found. In a surprise to researchers, a handful of forever chemicals were actually linked to lower diastolic, or bottom number, blood pressure in early childhood, though that changed when they entered their teenage years. Evidence on the health effects of PFAS has been mixed so far. While researchers believe these chemicals pose risks, it's difficult to pinpoint their exact impact because there are thousands of PFAS that could all interact in different ways, and because people's exposure changes over time. Even so, Li said the latest study underscores the need for researchers to track people's health and their PFAS levels over a long period of time, from early childhood to adolescence and beyond. Meanwhile, Mingyu Zhang, the study's senior author and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, said stronger environmental protections are needed to protect people from PFAS, given they are so ubiquitous that people cannot meaningfully limit their exposure on their own. That could include phasing out forever chemicals from consumer products and in industrial settings, he said, as well as better surveillance and limits on PFAS in water systems. 'This is not something individuals can solve on their own,' Zhang said. The Trump administration is facing backlash from climate scientists who say the US government is bungling basic facts about the impact of industrial emissions on air quality. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new proposal this week that would roll back restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants for power plants that rely on fossil fuels. The agency claimed in the proposal that heat-trapping carbon gas emissions "from fossil fuel-fired power plants do not contribute significantly to dangerous air pollution". But 19 scientists – experts in climate, health, and economics – told the Associated Press the agency's statement was scientifically incorrect. Many of them called it disinformation. Here's what five of them said. "This is the scientific equivalent to saying that smoking doesn't cause lung cancer," said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of the tech firm Stripe and the temperature monitoring group Berkeley Earth, adding that the administration's conclusion was "utterly nonsensical". "It's basic chemistry that burning coal and natural gas releases carbon dioxide, and it's basic physics that CO2 warms the planet. We've known these simple facts since the mid-19th century," said Philip Mote, an Oregon State climate scientist. Dr Howard Frumkin, former director of the US' National Center for Environmental Health and a retired public health professor at the University of Washington, said "coal-and gas-fired power plants contribute significantly to climate change," which "increases the risk of heat waves, catastrophic storms, infectious diseases, and many other health threats". 'These are indisputable facts,' he added. "Their statement is in direct conflict with evidence that has been presented by thousands of scientists from almost 200 countries for decades," University of Arizona climate scientist Kathy Jacobs said. Stanford climate scientist Chris Field, who coordinated an international report linking climate change to increasingly deadly extreme weather, summed it up this way: "It is hard to imagine a decision dumber than putting the short-term interests of oil and gas companies ahead of the long-term interests of our children and grandchildren".
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Prenatal exposure to ‘forever chemicals' may raise blood pressure during teen years: Study
Humans exposed to toxic 'forever chemicals' before birth may exhibit higher blood pressure during their teenage years, a new study has found. This connection was particularly pronounced in boys and in children born to non-Hispanic Black mothers, scientists observed in the study, published Thursday in the Journal of the American Heart Association. While previous research has shown these synthetic compounds may affect a rapidly developing fetus, the new study was able to investigate impacts on blood pressure from early childhood through adolescence. 'This suggests these forever chemicals can have long-lasting and potentially harmful effects that may only become apparent years after birth,' lead author Zeyu Li, a graduate student researcher in public health at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement. Forever chemicals, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), have been linked to numerous illnesses, such as kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, cardiovascular conditions and preeclampsia — also a blood pressure issue. Notorious for their inability to break down in the environment, PFAS are present in a wide range of household products, including cosmetics, waterproof apparel and nonstick pans, as well as in certain kinds of firefighting foams. To draw their conclusions, the study's authors tracked 1,094 children from a group called the Boston Birth Cohort over a median span of about 12 years. The researchers analyzed more than 13,000 blood pressure readings taken at routine pediatric visits from July 2001 to February 2024, grouping the results into age brackets of 3-5, 6-12 and 13-18. They then calculated age-, sex- and height-specific blood pressure percentiles, while accounting for the mother's health, delivery method, socioeconomic factors and weekly fish consumption, as fish are a known source of PFAS contamination. Among the children whose mothers had higher levels of the chemicals in blood samples collected after delivery, the scientists identified issues with three types of PFAS: PFDeA, PFNA and PFUnA. As levels of these PFAS doubled in the moms, systolic blood pressure — the top number in a reading, or the pressure in the arteries when the heart contracts — were between 1.39 percentile points and 2.78 percentile points higher in the 13- to 18-year-old age group. Under these conditions, diastolic pressure — the bottom number, or the pressure when the heart muscle relaxes between beats — surged 1.22 percentile points to 2.54 percentile points higher among members of this cohort. With the doubling of maternal PFAS blood levels, the risk of elevated blood pressure rose by 6 percent to 8 percent in boys and in children born to non-Hispanic Black mothers, according to the study. Li expressed hope that due to the study's findings, more researchers might be inspired to track such effects in children into adolescence. 'Many past studies stopped at early or mid-childhood, however, our study shows that the health effects of prenatal PFAS exposure may not appear until the teen years,' Li said. Senior author Mingyu Zhang, an assistant professor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, stressed that reducing prenatal and childhood exposure to PFAS requires policy-level action, as well as product phaseouts and widespread water regulation. 'This is not something individuals can solve on their own,' Zhang added. Justin Zachariah, an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine who was not involved with the study, explained that PFAS interfere with hormones and disrupt typical adolescent development. While scientists are already aware that boys and Black children are at increased risk of elevated blood pressure, exposure to these compounds may exacerbate that risk, warned Zachariah, who also chaired the American Heart Association's 2024 scientific panel on pediatric cardiology and environmental exposures. 'These chemicals last in our bodies for years, suggesting that perhaps prenatal exposure may have occurred before conception, and these chemicals may cause changes that can carry forward for generations,' Zachariah said. 'Therefore, improvements we make could echo for generations to come,' he added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
2 days ago
- Health
- The Hill
Prenatal exposure to ‘forever chemicals' may raise blood pressure during teen years: Study
Humans exposed to toxic 'forever chemicals' before birth may exhibit higher blood pressure during their teenage years, a new study has found. This connection was particularly pronounced in boys and in children born to non-Hispanic Black mothers, scientists observed in the study, published on Thursday in the Journal of the American Heart Association. While previous research has shown that these synthetic compounds may affect a rapidly developing fetus, the new study was able to investigate impacts on blood pressure from early childhood through adolescence. 'This suggests these forever chemicals can have long-lasting and potentially harmful effects that may only become apparent years after birth,' lead author Zeyu Li, a graduate student researcher in public health at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement. Forever chemicals, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), have been linked to numerous illnesses, such as kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, cardiovascular conditions and preeclampsia — also a blood pressure issue. Notorious for their inability to break down in the environment, PFAS are present in a wide range of household products, including cosmetics, waterproof apparel and nonstick pans, as well as in certain kinds of firefighting foams. To draw their conclusions, the study authors tracked 1,094 children from a group called the Boston Birth Cohort over a median span of about 12 years. The researchers analyzed more than 13,000 blood pressure readings taken at routine pediatric visits from July 2001 to February 2024, grouping the results into age brackets of 3-5, 6-12 and 13-18. They then calculated age-, sex- and height-specific blood pressure percentiles, while accounting for the mother's health, delivery method, socioeconomic factors and weekly fish consumption, as fish are a known source of PFAS contamination. Among the children whose mothers had higher levels of the chemicals in blood samples collected after delivery, the scientists identified issues with three types of PFAS: PFDeA, PFNA and PFUnA. As levels of these PFAS doubled in the moms, systolic blood pressure — the top number in a reading, or the pressure in the arteries when the heart contracts — were between 1.39 and 2.78 percentile points higher in the 13 to 18-year-old age group. Under these conditions, diastolic pressure — the bottom number, or the pressure when the heart muscle relaxes between beats — surged 1.22 to 2.54 percentile points higher among members of this cohort. With the doubling of maternal PFAS blood levels, the risk of elevated blood pressure rose by 6 to 8 percent in boys and in children born to non-Hispanic Black mothers, according to the study. Li expressed hope that due to the study's findings, more researchers might be inspired to track such effects in children into adolescence. 'Many past studies stopped at early or mid-childhood, however, our study shows that the health effects of prenatal PFAS exposure may not appear until the teen years,' Li said. Senior author Mingyu Zhang, an assistant professor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, stressed that reducing prenatal and childhood exposure to PFAS requires policy-level action, as well as product phase-outs and widespread water regulation. 'This is not something individuals can solve on their own,' Zhang added. Justin Zachariah, an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine who was not involved with the study, explained that PFAS interfere with hormones and disrupt typical adolescent development. While scientists are already aware that boys and Black children are at increased risk of elevated blood pressure, exposure to these compounds may exacerbate that risk, warned Zachariah, who also chaired the American Heart Association's 2024 scientific panel on pediatric cardiology and environmental exposures. 'These chemicals last in our bodies for years, suggesting that perhaps prenatal exposure may have occurred before conception, and these chemicals may cause changes that can carry forward for generations,' Zachariah said. 'Therefore, improvements we make could echo for generations to come,' he added.
