Asian Americans have much higher ‘forever chemicals’ levels than other groups, study finds

By Tom Perkins | The Guardian | August 25, 2023

Read the full article by Tom Perkins (The Guardian)

“Asian Americans likely have much higher levels of ‘forever chemicals’ in their blood than other US races and ethnicities, research using a novel method for measuring PFAS exposure finds.

The peer-reviewed study factored sociodemographic, dietary and behavioral characteristics into its algorithm, which makes it more sensitive to exposure differences among cultures than the standard methods used by the US government and most of the scientific community.

The median level of PFAS was 88% higher for Asian Americans than non-Hispanic whites, the research shows, a finding more commonly used methods miss.

‘We should think about exposure heterogeneity when we think about quantifying people’s cumulative PFAS burden to make sure that things are fair for everybody,’ said Shelley Liu, a PFAS researcher and study lead author with Mount Sinai."

This content provided by the PFAS Project.