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A study has concluded that ‘forever chemicals’ may cause high blood pressure in middle-aged women. According to the study, middle-aged women who have greater blood concentrations of toxic “forever chemicals” may be at greater risk of developing high blood pressure, The Hill reports.
The affected women are more likely to become hypertensive than those who had lower levels of the compounds, also called per- and polyufluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), The Hill wrote of the study published Monday in the American Heart Association Journal Hypertension.
PFAS are a set of synthetic chemicals found in a wealth of
household products including nonstick pans, waterproof apparel and cosmetics
and are notorious for their presence in jet-fuel firefighting foam and in
industrial discharge, according to The Hill.
“PFAS are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because they never
degrade in the environment and contaminate drinking water, soil, air, food and
numerous products we consume or encounter routinely,” lead author Ning Ding, a
postdoctoral fellow in the department of epidemiology at the University of
Michigan School of Public Health, said in a statement, The Hill reported.
According to The Hill, scientists have demonstrated a
“probable link” between PFAS and diagnosed high cholesterol, ulcerative
colitis, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer and
pregnancy-induced hypertension. This latest study extends that last category to
another subset of women.
“Women seem to be particularly vulnerable when exposed to
these chemicals,” Ding said, The Hill reported.
“Our study is the first to examine the association between
‘forever chemicals’ and hypertension in middle-aged women,” she continued.
“Exposure may be an underappreciated risk factor for women’s cardiovascular
disease risk.”
Ding and her colleagues reportedly drew the conclusion by
harnessing data from the Study of Women’s Health Across the
Nation-Multi-Pollutant Study, an initiative launched in 2016 to investigate the
impacts of multiple environmental chemical exposures on mid-life women from
diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Blood concentrations of PFAS and the risk of high blood
pressure among more than 1,000 women, ages 45 to 56 years old who had normal
blood pressure when they enrolled in the study were examined by the researchers.
Starting from 1999 to 2017 the women were tracked annually
and were recruited form five sites across the country, The Hill quoted the
authors.
Of the study’s 11,722 “person-years” — the number of years
multiplied by the members of an affected population — 470 women developed high
blood pressure, the scientists found, according to The Hill.
Women with higher levels of specific types of PFAS, of which
there are thousands, were more likely to develop hypertension, according to the
study.
According to The Hill, women who fell in the highest
one-third for levels of PFOS, PFOA and PFOS precursor EtFOSAA incurred 42 percent,
47 percent and 42 percent greater risk of developing high blood pressure,
respectively, compared to women in the lowest one-third.
Women in the highest one-third for all seven types of PFAS
investigated had a 71 percent increased risk of developing high blood pressure,
the authors found.
“We have known for some time that PFAS disrupt metabolism in
the body, yet, we didn’t expect the strength of the association we found,”
senior author Sung Kyun Park, an associate professor of epidemiology and
environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public
Health, said in a statement, according to The Hill.
“We hope that these findings alert clinicians about the
importance of PFAS and that they need to understand and recognize PFAS as an
important potential risk factor for blood pressure control,” Park added.