A new study shows that young U.S. military veterans have higher levels of “forever chemicals” in their blood than non-veterans.
U.S. veterans between the ages of 20 and 39 were found to have 13 percent to 24 percent higher levels of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in their blood than civilians of the same age, according to researchers from Brown University.
PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down in the environment, can remain in water, air, soil, plants, animals, and humans for years after initial exposure.
The results of the new study were published on Sept. 14 in Environmental Health Perspectives. It was the first to compare PFAS levels in the blood of U.S. veterans with PFAS levels in the blood of civilians, the study said.
“From a public health perspective, the critical thing about this work is that it comes with a recommendation,” Christian Hoover, the lead study author and a pre-doctoral fellow in epidemiology at Brown University, said.
Hoover specifically encouraged male veterans between the ages of 20 and 39 to speak to a physician about getting tested for PFAS levels.
The study analyzed eight survey cycles from 2003 to 2018, representing roughly 22.8 million U.S. adults over the age of 20 with prior military service.
Researchers found that young veterans were 18 percent more likely than young nonveterans to have PFAS levels exceeding the 20 nanograms per milliliter threshold established by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Individuals with PFAS levels higher than that threshold should be monitored by health care professionals, the study said.
The cause of the elevated PFAS levels was not determined in the study. However, potential sources could include exposure to munitions, firefighting foams, and groundwater contamination, according to researchers.
Joseph Braun, one of the authors and a professor of epidemiology at Brown University, noted that young veterans were more likely to have experienced recent acute exposure to forever chemicals during their military training and work than older veterans.
“The common PFAS chemical PFOA [Perfluorooctanoic acid], for example, has a half-life of about one and a half to two years, which means that if someone drank a jar of PFOA today, it would take 10 years for their body to get rid of it,” Braun wrote. “So as veterans get older and less actively involved with the military, they not only have less exposure, but the PFAS have time to be excreted out of the body.”
While the recent study primarily showed an increased level of PFAS in young veterans, Hoover suggested that older veterans may still want to seek medical advice regarding exposure.
“Even though our study wasn’t able to pick this up, it doesn’t mean that older veterans weren’t at the same risk when they were younger,” Hoover said.
In a unique finding, researchers noted that female veterans actually had a lower prevalence of elevated PFAS than female nonveterans. They suggested that the finding could be due to disproportionate female representation in support, healthcare, and communication roles, and less representation in combat and certain specialist roles, such as firefighting.
A Department of Veterans Affairs spokesperson told The Epoch Times on Sep. 21 that Veterans Affairs physicians can order PFAS testing “through commercial lab partners when deemed medically necessary.”
For many decades, PFAS have been used in a variety of consumer products and in certain firefighting foams used by military and civilian firefighters.
PFAS exposure can come from drinking contaminated water, breathing contaminated air, eating contaminated foods, swallowing contaminated soil or dust, and using products that contain PFAS.
Brown University noted that PFAS have been linked to multiple health issues, including thyroid dysfunction, kidney and testicular cancers, and liver and cardiovascular diseases.
The Environmental Protection Agency has also warned that exposure to certain levels of PFAS could result in birth defects, development delays, hormone issues, decreased fertility, and pregnancy complications.
The Government Accountability Office released a report last year showing that as of June 2024, the Department of War had finished site inspections and preliminary assessments of PFAS at almost all of the 718 military installations identified to have potential PFAS contamination.
The report also noted that more than half of the military installations had started the next step in the cleanup process.