Braun/Boyle: Developmental Exposure to PFAS and Childhood/Adolescent Obesity and Cardiometabolic Risk

Discovery Summary

Key Takeaways:

• PFAS are long-lasting chemicals found in some consumer products—like certain types of packaging and cookware—that can contaminate food, water, and air.
• Virtually all Americans have detectable levels of these substances in their blood with over 100 million Americans having levels above the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current advised limit.
• Emerging evidence from ECHO research suggests that prenatal exposure to PFAS may increase a child’s long-term risk for developing obesity and related health conditions.
• Going forward, these results can help to inform ongoing and future regulatory efforts aimed at defining exposure limits and safe drinking water standards.

Speakers:

Joseph Braun, PhD, MSPH, RN

Brown University, Providence, RI

Speaker Bio: Dr. Joseph Braun is an environmental epidemiologist and studies endocrine disrupting chemicals, toxic metals, obesity, cardiometabolic health, and pediatric neurodevelopmental disorders. Working with biostatisticians, exposure scientists, physicians, and engineers, he studies the health effects of environmental chemical mixtures to identify periods of heightened susceptibility in order to design interventions aimed at reducing exposure. Moreover, Dr. Braun is using untargeted metabolomics and DNA methylation to understand biological pathways underlying the potential effect of chemical exposures.

Kristen E. Boyle, PhD

University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus

Speaker Bio: Dr. Kristen Boyle is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics Nutrition Section at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the Co-Director of the Basic Sciences Research Core at the Colorado Lifecourse Epidemiology of Adiposity & Diabetes (LEAD) Center. Dr. Boyle’s research program focuses on understanding how various gestational stress exposures, from metabolic disease to environmental toxins, may impact offspring obesity and diabetes risk using mesenchymal stem cells from infant umbilical cord tissue.