'Forever Chemicals' Linked To Elevated Childhood Blood Pressure

Posted June 13, 2025

'Forever Chemicals' Linked To Elevated Childhood Blood Pressure

FRIDAY, June 13, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Kids exposed to PFAS “forever chemicals” before birth have an increased risk of high blood pressure in childhood, particularly during their teen years, a new study says.

Teenage boys had a 17% higher risk of increased risk of elevated blood pressure if their moms had elevated levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in blood samples taken after delivery, researchers reported June 12 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

“Prenatal PFAS exposure is associated with higher blood pressure later in childhood, especially during adolescence,” said lead researcher Zeyu Li, a graduate student researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

“This suggests these forever chemicals can have long-lasting and potentially harmful effects that may only become apparent years after birth,” Li added in a news release.

PFAS are called “forever chemicals” because they combine carbon and fluorine molecules, one of the strongest chemical bonds possible. This makes PFAS removal and breakdown extremely difficult.

PFAS can be found in 99% of Americans, absorbed through what they eat, drink, breathe or touch, according to the Environmental Working Group.

There are thousands of different PFAS chemicals, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says. They can be found in drinking water as well as a wide range of consumer products including paper fast food wrappers, Teflon cookware, stain-resistant furniture and clothing, and cosmetics and personal care products.

Untreated high blood pressure in children can set them up for a lifetime of chronic health problems, including heart disease, kidney disease and vision issues, says the Cleveland Clinic.

For this study, researchers followed nearly 1,100 children from the Boston Birth Cohort, a long-term health study that has been recruiting participants since 1998.

As part of the study, new mothers provided blood samples within one to three days after delivery. Researchers compared PFAS levels in these blood samples to more than 13,000 blood pressure readings taken from the children as they aged.

As levels of the chemicals doubled in moms, the risk of higher systolic blood pressure increased among children, results show. Systolic is the blood pressure that occurs during a heartbeat, and is the first number on a blood pressure reading.

For example, a doubling of the PFAS chemical perfluoroheptanesulfonic acid (PFHpS) in moms was associated with a 9% higher risk of elevated blood pressure in boys aged 6 to 12 and a 17% higher risk in boys aged 13 to 18, results show.

Black children also had an increased risk of elevated blood pressure as their mothers’ PFAS levels doubled, researchers found.

“We hope our findings encourage more researchers to follow children into adolescence and beyond,” Li said. “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.”

Researchers noted that because this was an observational study, it cannot draw a direct cause-and-effect relationship between PFAS and childhood blood pressure — only an association.

Unfortunately, PFAS chemicals abound in the human environment, making it difficult to avoid exposure.

People can choose PFAS-free products or cookware and filter their drinking water to limit exposure. However, regulation is required for a long-term solution, researchers said.

“Reducing PFAS exposure — especially during pregnancy and in children — requires policy-level action to limit and phase out PFAS in consumer products and industrial uses, and to strengthen monitoring and regulation of PFAS in water systems,” senior researcher Mingyu Zhang, an epidemiologist at Beth Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said in a news release. “This is not something individuals can solve on their own.”

During pregnancy, PFAS can cross the placenta and affect fetal development. However, it’s also likely the chemicals affect babies before they’re even conceived, by affecting the reproductive systems of mother and father, American Heart Association spokesman Dr. Justin Zachariah said in a news release.

“We must remember that 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. Therefore, improvements we make could echo for generations to come,” said Zacharia, medical director of the cardiovascular clinical research core at Texas Children’s Hospital, who was not involved in the study.

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has more on high blood pressure in children.

SOURCES: American Heart Association, news release, June 12, 2025; Cleveland Clinic, May 2, 2023; Environmental Working Group, 2025; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, May 15, 2025