PFAS exposure during pregnancy may cause changes in the developing brain, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Chemicals abbreviated PFAS have been used for some time in things like nonstick cookware, and almost all of us have measurable levels of them in our blood. Now a new study links maternal blood levels during pregnancy to changes in infants’ brains and possibly to autism. Heather Volk, an autism expert at Johns Hopkins, says these are early days. 

Volk: There is data out there from large birth cohort studies and from other cross-sectional studies that show that PFAS can have impacts on behavior for example in childhood. To actually try to connect that to brain measurements, that's the next step of evidence that we would like to see scientifically. But to know for sure based on a sample of 51 individuals that we really believe that this has a specific effect on a given part of the brain and that we really would change policies or findings with regard to that might be a little bit early. I hope though that this is the first step.     :30

Volk says there is a lot of research going on to try to explain an apparent rise in autism spectrum disorders worldwide, and PFAS may be involved. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.