children and young people in Germany have many long-lasting chemicals in the blood. The President of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Dirk Messner, warned on Monday in Dessau, the damage caused by them are often still unexplored. Specifically, it is the so-called per – and polyfluorinated chemicals, short-PFAS. They are used for example for the coating of coffee-cups, outdoor jackets, pans, or for fire-fighting foams, because they are fat-, water – and dirt-repellent.
Out of these 4700 chemicals comprehensive group of substances were found in a study of two chemicals the most common is the so-called perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and PERFLUORO octanoic acid (PFOA). In one fifth of the studied samples of children between three and 17 years, the PFOA concentration above a Commission set value to the health impairment is excluded. Around seven per cent were above the threshold values for PFOS.
PFAS accumulate primarily in fatty tissue and can also be transferred via breast milk from mother to child. The results of the study show that breast-fed children are higher contaminated with PFAS than non-breastfed children. Increased concentrations of PFOA and PFOS in human blood can reduce the effects of vaccinations, the propensity to infections, increase the cholesterol values increase, and in the offspring, reduced birth weight may result.
