{"id":3263,"date":"2026-05-29T10:49:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T09:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/?p=3263"},"modified":"2026-05-30T13:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T12:52:07","slug":"pfas-health-risks-and-our-stage-in-life-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/?p=3263","title":{"rendered":"How PFAS actually affect our bodies and why this matters (DRAFT)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Not everyone will want to read this. It does get a bit detailed, however, if you are curious how these forever chemicals work, read on. References are provided at the end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PFAS do not make a child, adult, or older person ill in a simple one-cause, one-disease way. They act more like persistent chemical stressors. Many PFAS bind to blood proteins, circulate through the body, pass through the liver and kidneys, and can remain in the body for months or years. This gives them repeated chances to disturb immune, endocrine, liver, kidney, placental, and metabolic systems. The final risk depends on the compound, dose, route, length of exposure, age, sex, genes, diet, poverty, stress, and other pollutants (ATSDR, 2024).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Child Health<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In children, the clearest concern is immune function. PFAS exposure has been linked with lower antibody response to some vaccines. The National Academies judged decreased antibody response in children and adults to have sufficient evidence of association, although it noted that this does not prove higher infection rates or poorer vaccine effectiveness in every case (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine [NASEM], 2022). EFSA also treated reduced vaccine response as the critical effect when setting a tolerable weekly intake for four PFAS: PFOA, PFNA, PFOS, and PFHxS (EFSA CONTAM Panel, 2020). Mechanistically, PFAS may disturb immune-cell signalling, inflammatory control, oxidative stress, and nuclear receptor pathways. These processes help immune cells mature, communicate, and make antibodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adverse pregnancy outcomes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

PFAS can also matter before birth. The placenta controls oxygen, nutrients, hormones, immune tolerance, and waste exchange. Some PFAS cross the placenta and may disturb placental blood flow, oxidative stress, lipid signalling, and growth-related pathways. This gives a plausible route to the small reductions in fetal or infant growth seen in some studies. NASEM judged reduced birth weight to have sufficient evidence of association with PFAS exposure (NASEM, 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adult health<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In adults, PFAS exposure appears most strongly linked with dyslipidaemia, or disordered blood lipids. NASEM judged the evidence sufficient for dyslipidaemia in both adults and children (NASEM, 2022). PFAS can affect liver pathways that regulate fatty-acid transport, bile acid handling, cholesterol clearance, and nuclear receptors such as PPARs. The result may be higher total or LDL cholesterol in some exposed people. This does not mean PFAS alone causes heart disease, but it may add to long-term vascular risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PFAS may also affect the liver, thyroid, kidney, and cancer risk. Reviews link some PFAS with altered immune and thyroid function, liver disease, lipid and insulin dysregulation, kidney disease, reproductive and developmental effects, and cancer, though much evidence still centres on older \u201clegacy\u201d PFAS such as PFOA and PFOS (Fenton et al., 2021). NASEM judged kidney cancer in adults to have sufficient evidence of increased risk, while thyroid disease, liver enzyme changes, breast cancer, testicular cancer, and ulcerative colitis sit in weaker evidence categories (NASEM, 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impacts on the elderly<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In older people, PFAS may matter because ageing reduces reserve. Older adults may already have weaker immune response, poorer kidney function, higher cholesterol, thyroid disturbance, or multiple medicines that rely on liver and kidney clearance. PFAS may therefore push stressed systems closer to clinical illness. The core point is risk shift, not fixed fate. Across the life course, PFAS can nudge immune, endocrine, liver, kidney, placental, and lipid systems away from normal regulation. In one person, this may not prove cause. In a population with raised exposure, it can increase the burden of disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Generally, I rely on what are known as ‘meta analyses’ as they tend to be more reliable than individual pieces of research. I have also tried to make sure that these are accessible without going through a pay-wall – if you hit one, do get in touch and let me know before you spend any money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. (2024). Health effects: PFAS information for clinicians<\/em>. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https:\/\/www.atsdr.cdc.gov\/pfas\/hcp\/clinical-overview\/health-effects.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

EFSA CONTAM Panel. (2020). Risk to human health related to the presence of perfluoroalkyl substances in food. EFSA Journal, 18<\/em>(9), Article e06223. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2903\/j.efsa.2020.6223<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fenton, S. E., Ducatman, A., Boobis, A., DeWitt, J. C., Lau, C., Ng, C., Smith, J. S., & Roberts, S. M. (2021). Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance toxicity and human health review: Current state of knowledge and strategies for informing future research. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 40<\/em>(3), 606\u2013630. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/etc.4890<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2022). Guidance on PFAS exposure, testing, and clinical follow-up<\/em>. The National Academies Press. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.17226\/26156<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(c) 2026 Graham Wilson. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not everyone will want to read this. It does get a bit detailed, however, if you are curious how these forever chemicals work, read on. References are provided at the end. PFAS do not make a child, adult, or older person ill in a simple one-cause, one-disease way. They act more like persistent chemical stressors. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pfas","category-pure-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3263"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3295,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263\/revisions\/3295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tobelikethis.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}