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.
