PFAS may raise blood pressure during pregnancy. Who is most vulnerable?
Forever chemicals in everyday products may affect mothers and babies long after birth. A Northeastern study links exposure to higher blood pressure, especially in first-time mothers and women carrying girls.
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Say no to sushi and steer clear of raw sprouts. Skip Bikram yoga. And keep your hands off that cat litter box.
Pregnancy comes with a list of dangers to avoid. Food-borne illnesses, overheating and parasites rank high.
However, some everyday products come with hazards that are hard to spot, such as per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly known as forever chemicals. They have been a go-to for keeping things dry and gunk-free, such as waterproof clothing and pans. But they contain chains of carbon atoms linked to fluorine — a bond that’s especially difficult to break, and if present in the body for a long time could cause a host of serious health risks.
A new study by Julia Varshavsky, assistant professor at the Northeastern University Bouvé College of Health Sciences, and colleagues found that women exposed to forever chemicals were twice more likely to have high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, later in pregnancy. And the tendency to develop the medical condition was strongest in first-time mothers and those carrying girls.
Knowing who is most vulnerable could help clinicians catch dangerous spikes earlier and target efforts to reduce the contamination risk before it jeopardizes the health of two generations.
Decades of research and thousands of lawsuits since their harmful effects became clear, PFAS are still in the drinking water of roughly half the country and in thousands of commercial products. They’re also in the blood of just about every human, including those still in the womb.
High blood pressure isn’t great under any circumstances, but during pregnancy there’s twice as much at stake.
Building a new human calls for some major interior remodeling. Vessels have to be rerouted and organs shuffled around to shoehorn in an ever-expanding bundle and keep it stocked with nutrients.
“The blood volume has to increase by up to 50% by the end of pregnancy,” Varshavsky said.
Keeping all of it flowing is hard on the heart.
“Researchers often describe pregnancy as a cardiovascular ‘stress test,’” Rainbow Rubin, director of science at Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, an advocacy organization, told Northeastern Global News.
Some women develop gestational hypertension — a condition marked by high blood pressure that first develops after 20 weeks of pregnancy and affects 13% of moms-to-be in the U.S., with those of Puerto Rican descent at highest risk among Hispanic women, according to previous research.
Puerto Rico also happens to be a hotbed of hazardous-waste sites.
PROTECT is a long-term study led through the civil and environmental engineering department at Northeastern University that has followed Puerto Rican women and their children since 2010, Varshavsky explained.
For the current study, they measured PFAS in the blood of 548 pregnant women who were between 16 to 20 weeks. They then examined the relationship between each participant’s chemical concentrations and her blood pressure, recorded at 16–20 and at 24–28 weeks.
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The results suggested that first-time mothers and women carrying girls were most at risk for hypertension.
“There is different hormone signaling going on depending on the sex of the baby,” Varshavsky explained. That’s what accounted for the gender-specific effect.
What threw everyone for a loop was how the results stacked up against previous research.
“Other studies have shown the opposite,” she said — the higher risk showed up in soon-to-be boy moms.
Future research could clarify the reason for the difference. For now, the findings point to pregnancy history and the baby’s sex as potentially important clues to who faces greater risks from PFAS.
The problems don’t end in the delivery room for either mom or baby.
“Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy … predict a woman’s heart health for life,” Rubin said. With PFAS nudging blood pressure upwards, the long-term toll can be that much worse, she explained.
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Infants born with forever chemicals already in their blood also get an extra dose each time they breastfeed, Laura Spark, environmental health program director at Clean Water Action, an advocacy organization, told Northeastern Global News. And the potential impact continues well into adolescence, Rubin explained.
For example, low birth weight associated with PFAS exposure has been linked to childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes well into the teen years.
When it comes to solutions, Varshavsky suggested opting for “cleaner, greener purchasing decisions,” such as using a water filter.
Sure, the frittata won’t stick to a Teflon frying pan and GORE-TEX boots let you plow through every puddle. But it may not be worth the risk.
