{"id":458121,"date":"2026-04-28T16:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T16:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/458121\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T16:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T16:29:12","slug":"exposure-to-pfas-forever-chemicals-linked-to-increased-risk-of-childhood-leukemia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/458121\/","title":{"rendered":"Exposure to PFAS \u201cforever chemicals\u201d linked to increased risk of childhood leukemia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.uci.edu\/2026\/04\/27\/forever-chemicals-may-be-linked-to-childhood-leukemia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Original story from the University of California \u2013 Irvine<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>UC Irvine-led study found that exposure to previously unknown PFAS chemicals was associated with a higher risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer.<\/li>\n<li>Researchers analyzed blood samples from 125 newborn children with leukemia and 219 without cancer in Los Angeles County, also finding higher levels of PFOA and PFOS linked to increased risk.<\/li>\n<li>The study builds on earlier research linking PFAS in drinking water to childhood cancers and calls for further study as exposure remains widespread.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Early exposure to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.niehs.nih.gov\/health\/topics\/agents\/pfc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PFAS<\/a>, a group of widely used compounds known as \u201cforever chemicals,\u201d was associated with a higher risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer, according to University of California, Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population &amp; Public Health researchers.\u00a0The findings were published recently in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41370-026-00891-6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Journal of Exposure Science &amp; Environmental Epidemiology<\/a>, a Nature journal.<\/p>\n<p>PFAS are found in drinking water, food and beverage containers, and everyday items like nonstick cookware and stain-resistant fabrics. They don\u2019t break down easily and can build up in the body over time.<\/p>\n<p>The study adds to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/publichealth.uci.edu\/2025\/07\/09\/pfas-exposure-and-childhood-cancers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">earlier research<\/a>\u00a0by the same team, which tracked PFAS exposure in drinking water among more than 40,000 California children. That work, published in\u00a0Environmental Epidemiology, linked higher levels of two common PFAS chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, to increased risk of several childhood cancers, including acute myeloid leukemia and Wilms tumor.<\/p>\n<p>In their new study, the researchers analyzed dried blood spots collected from newborns to get a clearer picture of early exposure. The study included 125 children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and 219 children without cancer, all born in Los Angeles County between 2000 and 2015, and identified through the California Linkage Study of Early-onset Cancers.<\/p>\n<p>Among 17 PFAS detected in the newborn blood, PFOA and PFOS showed up at the highest levels. Children with higher levels had increased odds of developing leukemia, though the estimates were not precise. Risk also appeared to rise with combined exposure to the two chemicals.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers also identified 26 additional PFAS compounds, several of which showed similar patterns, including some that have rarely been studied.<\/p>\n<p>Stronger links were seen among non-Hispanic children, though researchers cautioned that those findings are preliminary due to small sample sizes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis research moves us closer to understanding what babies are exposed to from the very start by directly measuring PFAS present at birth, rather than estimating exposure from drinking water,\u201d said corresponding author Veronica Vieira, chair and professor of environmental and occupational health at Wen Public Health. \u201cBy capturing exposures during a critical window of development, we are gaining a clearer picture of how environmental contaminants may contribute to childhood cancer risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The study does not prove cause and effect, but it adds to growing evidence that PFAS exposure early in life may contribute to cancer risk in children.<\/p>\n<p>As PFAS contamination remains widespread, researchers say more studies are needed to understand how this persistent class of chemicals, the majority of which remain largely unmonitored, may affect children\u2019s health and how exposure can be reduced at the population level.<\/p>\n<p>The research was supported by a National Institutes of Health grant.<\/p>\n<p>Additional authors include Natalie R. Binczewski of UC Irvine; Sheng Liu, Jeremy Koelmel and Krystal J. Godri Pollitt of Yale University; Libby M. Morimoto and Catherine Metayer of UC Berkeley; Joseph L. Wiemels of the University of Southern California; and Xiaomei Ma of the Yale School of Public Health.<\/p>\n<p>This article has been republished from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.uci.edu\/2026\/04\/27\/forever-chemicals-may-be-linked-to-childhood-leukemia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">following\u00a0materials<\/a>.\u00a0Material may have been edited for length and house style. For further information, please contact the cited source. Our press release publishing policy can be accessed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/info.oncology-central.com\/press-release-policy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-airgap-id=\"15\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Original story from the University of California \u2013 Irvine UC Irvine-led study found that exposure to previously unknown&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[201548,18,135,19,17,7400],"class_list":["post-458121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-acute-lymphoblastic-leukemia","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pfas"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116483284513708733","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}