Overview

• Doubling maternal PFDeA, PFNA and PFUnA levels corresponded to systolic blood pressure increases of 1.39 to 2.78 percentile points and diastolic increases of 1.22 to 2.54 percentile points in 13–18-year-olds.
• Male adolescents and children of non-Hispanic Black mothers faced a 6% to 8% higher risk of elevated blood pressure with greater prenatal PFAS exposure.
• Me-PFOSA-AcOH, PFHpS, PFHxS, PFOA and PFOS were associated with lower diastolic pressure in early childhood but these links did not persist into adolescence.
• The Boston Birth Cohort study followed 1,094 mother–child pairs and analyzed over 13,000 blood pressure readings taken from July 2001 to February 2024.
• Authors call for policy actions to phase out PFAS in consumer products and tighten water-system regulation to reduce prenatal and childhood exposure.