Do the environmental pollutants PFAS have any impact on development of autism? Elizabeth Tracey reports
Update: 2025-11-10
Description
PFAS are chemicals that were used in things like nonstick cookware or stain resistant fabrics, and they’ve been implicated in a number of deleterious health outcomes, including autism. A new study looks at PFAS exposures in mothers and changes in brain architecture in their infants, and finds a relationship. Autism expert Heather Volk at Johns Hopkins describes the study.
Volk: Thinking about how to best measure it and how to study the impact of PFAS on brain development is a great question. This particular paper seeks to try to do that, actually leveraging magnetic resonance imaging data. What is notable about this paper with PFAS is they're actually looking at maternal levels of PFAS measured in relationship to child brain measures. It's only 51 mother child pairs, I think it is an important first look at trying to connect actual measured chemical exposures during pregnancy to child brain development. :31
Volk says much larger studies need to be done to establish a role for PFAS in autism risk. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
Volk: Thinking about how to best measure it and how to study the impact of PFAS on brain development is a great question. This particular paper seeks to try to do that, actually leveraging magnetic resonance imaging data. What is notable about this paper with PFAS is they're actually looking at maternal levels of PFAS measured in relationship to child brain measures. It's only 51 mother child pairs, I think it is an important first look at trying to connect actual measured chemical exposures during pregnancy to child brain development. :31
Volk says much larger studies need to be done to establish a role for PFAS in autism risk. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
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