Researchers in Sweden observed a concerning pattern when they combined data from separate public records showing drinking water exposure and the rates of asthma in young children.
Babies born to women who lived in towns served by a municipal water supply notorious for its PFAS (Perfluoroalkyl substances) contamination had a higher likelihood of developing the chronic lung disease, which affected an estimated 262 million people worldwide in 2019 and led to 455,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
Already known for their capacity to cause immune system dysfunction, these findings add another notch to forever chemicals’ toxic belt.
For decades, the local waterworks in Ronneby, a town in southern Sweden’s Blekinge County, had been contaminated with PFAS, a subset of manufactured chemicals found in common household items and many types of food packaging.
They’ve been dubbed “forever chemicals” because some of the more than 12,000 varieties will take 1,000 years to break down naturally.
Researchers for this study cross-referenced a list of all the children born in Blekinge County between 2006 and 2013 with asthma diagnosis statistics from the National Patient Register.
To ballpark the levels of prenatal exposure specifically, they linked the maternal addresses found during that exposure period to the county’s water records.
The results were clear: Childhood asthma was more likely in cases where the baby was exposed to “very high” PFAS levels in utero.
That PFAS are dangerous to human health is nothing new, and environmentalists and health researchers have been shouting it from the rooftops for years to anyone who would listen.
The chemicals — which leach into the water supply through landfills, industrial waste, sewage treatment plants, fire-fighting foams and other sources — have been linked to immune suppression, hormone disruption, digestive issues and a spectrum of cancers.
These findings out of Sweden underscore those concerns, adding yet another condition to the heap of possible risks tied to PFAS exposure.
In their report, the authors of the study wrote that their results “point to a substantial and previously unrecognized public health consequence of PFAS contamination.”
Drinking water pollution in Ronneby, they wrote, led to exposure levels that were “hundreds of times higher than the general population,” which gave their team the opportunity to analyze the health effects associated with PFAS “across a much broader exposure range.”
The US Geological Survey estimates that at least 45% of tap water in this country is contaminated with PFAS.
In 2020, a study by scientists with the Environmental Working Group showed more than 200 million Americans rely on water systems polluted by two of the best-known types of PFAS at a concentration of one part per trillion or higher.
The EPA’s response to this mounting crisis has incurred many a spit-take: While the agency did include PFAS in its latest list of drinking water contaminants to watch out for, it also recently asked a federal court to undo its own rules for the regulation of the chemicals in the nation’s water supply.
Meanwhile, the authors of the paper in Sweden are calling for more PFAS studies globally, especially to better understand the compounding variables contributing to asthma, which has become more prevalent worldwide in the last 50 years.
Such a dip in respiratory health could be attributable to a mix of things, not just PFAS exposure in utero. Other environmental toxins, smoking in the household and PFAS exposure in early childhood, not just the prenatal period, could all be taking a toll on the world’s lungs.
