"Forever Chemicals" Are Speeding Up Our Aging – And One Demographic Is More Vulnerable Than Others

“Middle-aged men [are] the most vulnerable group,” said Xiangwei Li, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China, in a statement this week. That’s the conclusion from a new study, in which Li and his colleagues found that certain “forever chemicals” – more properly known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – appear to accelerate biological aging in those exposed to them.

The findings come after an analysis of blood from more than 300 older US adults, sourced from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Staff at the time measured the concentrations of 11 PFAS as well as the individuals' DNA methylome – that is, the complete set of methylation modifications made within the individuals’ genomes through their lives.

As it turns out, there was a lot to measure. The chemicals perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA) were present in a full 95 percent of the samples, they discovered, with others, like EPAH, MPAH, PFOS, PFOA, and PFHS, found in almost as many again.

That’s not exactly good news: PFAS in general have been linked to a wide range of health problems, including cancer, infertility, hormonal imbalances, increased health risks in pregnancy, and much more. As a result, the EU is considering a ban on all PFAS outside of specific uses – France has already gone further, outlawing all PFAS in clothing and cosmetics – and some, including PFOS, PFOA, and PFHS, have been either heavily restricted or targeted for elimination for years already under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, a treaty to which all but seven countries in the world are party.

There was no difference in PFAS concentrations based on age or gender, the analysis found – but their effects were more varied. When Li and his colleagues used the data to calculate participants’ biological age, they found a strong link between exposure to PFNA and PFOSA and accelerated aging, especially in middle-aged men.

It’s not often that illnesses or toxins have such a specific specialty – but it makes a kind of sense. “The aging markers we analyzed are heavily influenced by lifestyle factors such as smoking,” Li pointed out, “which can compound the damaging effects of these pollutants”; indeed, to take that example alone, men are about 30 percent more likely than women to smoke, with 45-64 being the age range with most smokers. “We suspect that[‘s why] men may be at higher risk,” he said.

Plus, middle age is a weird time, health-wise. It’s “a sensitive biological window,” explained Ya-Qian Xu, an assistant professor in Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of Medicine and first author of the study. “The body becomes more susceptible to age-related stressors, which may explain why this group responds more strongly to chemical exposure.”

While there are a few caveats to this research – most notably that the blood was originally collected in 1999 and 2000, making the resulting data a snapshot that may not be totally relevant to today – the upshot is clear: PFAS are bad news. And while some are already seeing regulation, those tend to be the so-called “legacy” chemicals, not the compounds considered in the study.

But “these findings suggest that some newer PFAS alternatives are not necessarily low-risk replacements,” Li cautioned. “[They] warrant serious attention regarding their environmental impact."

"Meanwhile, to reduce risk, individuals can try to limit their consumption of packaged foods and avoid microwaving fast-food containers,” he advised. “Looking ahead, we are actively modeling how PFAS interacts with other common pollutants, as we need to understand the cumulative health risks of these chemical mixtures.”

The study is published in the journal Frontiers in Aging.