There’s no force in nature more powerful than a mothers love for her child. Yet there is new evidence that PFAS threatens that sacred relationship
We have known for a long time that PFAS builds up in the body and blood. So even if a mother is not currently exposed to PFAS, the buildup from past exposure can cause a mother to pass the PFAS in her body to her child in her mother’s milk.
Recent research shows that high maternal PFAS levels are associated with low birth weight, which can mean slower development and more health problems in young children. The latest study comes out of Sweden and is reported here. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-019-0720-1. It shows that children born to mothers with more PFAS exposure tended to have lower weights, especially when those children are girls. The Swedish study showed that baby girls exposed to high levels of PFAS in utero had an average weight 136 grams—about 5 ounces—lower than the lowest exposed group.
To quote the article:
A shift in the birthweight distribution of a population may have consequences from a public health perspective due to increased proportions of infants with low birthweight or born small for gestational age.***
This makes the association between PFAS exposure and this clinical outcome highly worrisome and important for future studies. The magnitude of the present associations must hence be considered relevant for public child health.
So ask yourself why the EPA, the PA DEP and Governor Wolf still have failed to set an enforceable drinking water standard for PFAS contamination and refuse to classify PFAS as hazardous substances.
