PFAS exposure found to increase risk of severe Covid-19

By Rebecca Trager | Chemistry World | January 12, 2021

Read the full article by Rebecca Trager (Chemistry World)

“Toxicologists are expressing concern that exposure to per- or poly-fluorinated substances (PFASs) can increase a person’s likelihood of developing severe Covid-19. There are also warning that PFASs could also diminish the effectiveness of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus.

A number of studies in the scientific literature have now linked elevated PFAS levels with immune system suppression, as well as decreased response to vaccines. Philippe Grandjean, an adjunct environmental health professor at Harvard University, and colleagues have found that higher levels of the PFAS perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) in the blood are associated with increased severity of Covid-19 infections.

PFBA, a breakdown product of other PFAS chemicals, is known to accumulate in the lungs more than any other compounds in its class. It is a short four carbon PFAS with a half-life of three to four days, compared with two to three years for long-chain PFASs like perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS).

Grandjean’s team analysed blood samples from 323 Covid-19 patients in Denmark, and found that those with high PFBA serum levels were more than twice as likely to develop a severe form of the disease. Overall, patients with elevated PFBA had a higher chance of being hospitalised, entering intensive care and dying than those with lower levels.

The researchers measured five PFAS compounds in these patients’ serum, but the other four were not associated with more serious cases of Covid-19…”

This content provided by the PFAS Project.