2025/12/08 by Robert Baluja, Bo Guo, Wesley Howden +2 · 1 voice
Environmental Science · #Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research #Fluoride Effects and Removal #Effects and risks of endocrine disrupting chemicals
paper · doi:10.1073/pnas.2509801122
openalex created_date 2025/12/08 · openalex publication_date 2025/12/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
There is evidence of widespread human exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) but limited evidence of the human health impacts of this exposure. Using data on New Hampshire births from 2010-2019, we show that mothers receiving water that had flowed beneath a PFAS-contaminated site, as opposed to comparable mothers receiving water that had flowed toward a PFAS-contaminated site, had 191% [95% CI: 83-298%] higher first-year infant mortality (611 [268-955] additional first-year deaths per 100k births); 168% [42-294%] more births before 28 wk of gestational age (466 [116-817] additional such births per 100k births); and 180% [57-302%] more births with weight below 1,000 g (607 [192-1022] additional such births per 100k births). Extrapolating to the contiguous U.S., PFAS contamination imposes annual social costs of approximately 8 billion. These health costs are substantially larger than current outside estimates of the cost of removing PFAS from the public water supply.