PFAS exposure via drinking water contamination may play a role in childhood cancer risk

A study led by the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health at the University of California, Irvine has revealed possible links between exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water and an increased risk of certain childhood cancers.

Widely used in industrial and consumer products, PFAS - commonly known as "forever chemicals" due to their persistence in the environment - have been linked to various adverse health effects. An Environmental Protection Agency monitoring program documented detectable levels of PFAS in California drinking water between 2013 and 2015.

In an online study in the journal Environmental Epidemiology, the researchers investigated the role that PFAS exposure via drinking water contamination may play in childhood cancer risk.

Our findings indicate suggestive associations between predicted prenatal PFAS exposure and certain childhood cancers, including acute myeloid leukemia and Wilms tumors."

Natalie Binczewski, corresponding author, a UC Irvine Ph.D. candidate in environmental health sciences

Researchers analyzed data from 10,220 children up to age 15 diagnosed with cancer between 2000 and 2015, along with 29,974 healthy children. They estimated maternal PFAS levels by linking geocoded addresses at birth to local water district contamination data and determined that higher concentrations of two PFAS – perfluorooctanesulfonic acid and perfluorooctanoic acid – were associated with certain childhood cancers.

"While these results do not confirm that PFAS exposure directly causes childhood cancers, they add to a growing body of evidence highlighting potential health risks," Binczewski said. "Further studies are needed to confirm and better understand these associations, but this research underscores the importance of clean drinking water and continued regulatory efforts to protect public health."

Other team members included Veronica Vieira, UC Irvine professor and chair of environmental & occupational health; Libby M. Morimoto, associate project scientist, and Catherine Metayer, adjunct professor, both from the Division of Epidemiology in UC Berkeley's School of Public Health; Xiaomei Ma, professor and interim chair of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health; and Joseph L. Wiemels, professor of population and public health sciences at USC's Keck School of Medicine.

This work was supported by grant R01 ES032196 from the National Institutes of Health.