Chemicals Commonly Found in Cookware and Textiles Linked to Thyroid Disease

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, ‘C8’) and perfluoroctane sulphonate (PFOS) are industrial chemicals found in many consumer products.  Low-level chronic exposure occurs with everyday exposure to cookware, carpets, and fabrics for which these chemicals are used for production purposes.  Tamara S. Galloway, from University of Exeter (United Kingdom), and colleagues analyzed blood serum levels of these two chemicals in 3,974 adult American men and women enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).   The researchers found that those women whose blood levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was in the highest quartile were more than twice as likely to report having thyroid disease as those in the lowest two quartiles.  Among men, the study revealed an increased risk of thyroid disease among those who had high levels of perfluoroctane sulphonate (PFOS) in their blood.   Concluding that: “Higher concentrations of serum PFOA and PFOS are associated with current thyroid disease in the US general adult population,” the team urges for: “More work is needed to establish the mechanisms involved and to exclude confounding and pharmacokinetic explanations.”