Prenatal and early life exposure to Pfas mixtures is probably linked to higher levels of intestinal inflammation in children, new first-of-its-kind research shows. Intestinal inflammation can cause irritable bowel diseases, like ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and colorectal cancer.

While Pfas has been linked to irritable bowel disease and intestinal inflammation in adults, the new peer-reviewed Mt Sinai study is the first to look at how the chemicals impact children during a critical developmental phase.

The authors checked and followed mother-child pairs from during prenatal development, or just after birth, through up to 11 years of age. The findings showed a strong correlation between elevated Pfas levels around birth and markers of inflammation across the children in the cohort.