PFAS Can Disrupt Bone Health & Development, Study Finds

Despite what the dairy ads of yesteryear would lead you to believe, there are plenty of ways to build strong bones beyond drinking milk.

A study published in the journal Environmental Research1 set out to explore how exposure to PFAS affects bone mineral density in childhood and young adulthood—two of the most important periods for bone development.

As a refresher, PFAS (short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are synthetic chemicals used primarily to make products water- and stain-proof. They line our waterproof pots and pans and give some of our beauty products their smooth glide. You may know them as "forever chemicals" since their structure makes them resistant to breakdown. These days, you can find traces of PFAS throughout the environment and in 97% of our bodies2.

We're still learning about how these relatively new compounds affect human health in the long term, but previous research3 has linked them to immune and thyroid issues, liver disease, kidney disease, and some cancers.

This new study looked at two groups: children from the Study of Latino Adolescents at Risk of Type 2 Diabetes cohort and young adults from the Southern California Children's Health Study. They focused primarily on Hispanic participants since the prevalence of bone diseases like osteoporosis is higher in this population. They have also been historically understudied in PFAS research.

All in all, close to 500 young people took part in this longitudinal study. First, their blood was tested for markers of five types of PFAS. They also took a DXA scan to measure their bone mineral density; the higher your bone mineral density, the stronger and less likely you are to break your bones. During a follow-up one to four years later, the participants went through these same tests again.

After analyzing the data, researchers found that those with higher exposure to PFAS had a lower bone mineral density in the Latino Adolescent cohort. The associations for other types of PFAS across cohorts were similar but not strong enough to be statistically significant.

"These results support the hypothesis that PFAS impair bone development and bone mineral density during adolescence, and these associations persist into adulthood," the researchers conclude.

By the time we hit 30, we've reached peak bone mass. This makes healthy bone development during childhood and adolescent years absolutely critical. Having a low bone mineral density is a risk factor for the development of osteoporosis, and weak bones can make us more susceptible to life-threatening falls4 as we age.

And yet, we don't hear much about the factors that can help or hurt our bone health when we're young. "I think we always hear growing up that calcium is good for bones and vitamin D is good for us. But that's kind of where the discussion stops until we're older and maybe we have had a fracture," Clare Masternak, PA-C, an orthopedic surgery physician assistant and the bone health and fragility fracture program coordinator at Michigan Medicine, previously told mindbodygreen.

This new research adds to a growing body of evidence that environmental toxins threaten healthy bone development. And the risk doesn't start and end with childhood. Previous studies have found that maternal PFAS concentrations during pregnancy may be associated with lower bone mineral accrual and strength in early adolescence, and increased exposure to PFAS may reduce bone mineral density in adult men and women too.

The good news is that the production and use of PFAS has been on a decline in the U.S. over the last few decades. The bad news is that PFAS we've already created will never really go away. They're still ubiquitous in the industrialized world and impossible to avoid altogether.