PFAS exposure may reduce COVID-19 vaccine potency, experts warn - mlive.com

Toxicologists who specialize in the health effects of “forever chemicals” known as PFAS are warning that exposure to the toxic substances may increase the risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms and undermine the efficacy of vaccinations just starting to be given against the disease.

Dr. Linda Birnbaum, retired director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, said that people who’ve been exposed to high levels of PFAS may end up needing additional booster shots of the coronavirus vaccine and may deserve to be moved up the vaccination priority list due to their risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms.

“We know (PFAS) do suppress the immune system — as well as stimulate it in certain cases,” Birnbaum said. “We know that if you have higher levels, you’re more likely to have that suppression happening. And we know that suppression of the immune system can be associated with a decreased ability to mount a therapeutic response to vaccination.”

Despite that, Birnbaum said people ought to still get their shots. “That doesn’t mean you don’t have any response to vaccination, but it just may not be as much.”

Birnbaum and Jamie DeWitt, a pharmacology and toxicology professor at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, spoke Thursday on a call with reporters hosted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which advocates for stronger PFAS regulations.

DeWitt helped draft Michigan’s new PFAS drinking water standards, which require testing and potential filtration by utilities, schools, hospitals and large businesses that supply water to the public. The new standards follow statewide testing that found at least some level of PFAS in drinking water serving about 1.9 million Michiganders in recent years.

DeWitt pointed to a new study out of Denmark published by researchers with the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health that found links between severe COVID-19 symptoms and exposure to high levels of PFBA, a short-chain PFAS compound used as a replacement for legacy compounds like PFOA and PFOS, which have been phased-out of use by manufacturers.

The study is undergoing peer review. It was led by environmental health researcher Philippe Grandjean, who has been studying links between PFAS exposure and vaccine uptake for years. His work is cited by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a statement acknowledging the potential intersection between PFAS exposure and COVID-19.

Grandjean says that although PFBA exits the bloodstream in a matter of days, as opposed to longer chain compounds that stay in the body much longer, the chemical accumulates in the lungs and “it’s probably what’s in the lungs that counts because that’s where the big COVID battle is fought,” Grandjean told The Intercept this month.

More than half of the 332 people in Grandjean’s study who developed severe COVID symptoms had elevated PFBA levels in their blood plasma.

“What we understand about COVID and PFAS effect on the immune system is that people with higher PFAS levels in their blood are at higher risk of immunotoxicity,” said DeWitt.

“I think the risk is real but we can’t put definitive numbers on those risks right now,” she said.

Birnbaum and DeWitt say more research around PFAS and COVID-19 is needed, but there’s enough known to warrant special attention for populations with known higher exposure levels, such as communities with contaminated water or certain occupations, such as military service members or firefighters who wear chemical-coated turnout gear.

Birnbaum said municipal wastewater has emerged as a significant source of PFAS contamination entering the environment nationwide, as well as the application of wastewater biosolids on cropland.

Both pathways have been under study by Michigan regulators for several years and the state has reported some success in reducing the chemical load exiting wastewater plants.

Statewide, there are 152 locations under investigation where the chemicals exceed new state thresholds in groundwater.

Michigan launched an epidemiological health study this fall in Kalamazoo and Kent counties, where people exposed to high PFAS levels in drinking water through the former municipal supply in Parchment and Cooper Township, and contaminated groundwater in the Rockford and Belmont area, will have blood samples analyzed over the next several years.

The state is also launching an assessment of PFAS exposure in Oscoda, where contamination from the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base has spread through water and wildlife.

Birnbaum noted that the ATSDR is attempting to roll-out a nationwide health study of eight communities with high exposure levels — which Kent County is included — but “there’s been some holdup at OMB (White House Office of Management and Budget).”

DeWitt said those with higher exposure to PFAS should be “even more diligent” about taking recommended precautions to stay safe during the pandemic, such as mask-wearing, physical distancing and frequent hand-washing.

Birnbaum noted that PFAS is known to be used in many food packaging paper and containers that are being heavily relied upon by restaurants serving take-out and delivery orders during the pandemic, and suggested that may be increasing chemical exposure for some people.

Birnbaum acknowledged that as a tough reality. “It’s really hard to tell people right now not to have takeout food,” she said. “Many of us are doing that.”

Nonetheless, in addition to increasing potential chemical exposures, the increased reliance on single-use food packaging “has also increased the amount of plastic and Styrofoam going into the environment, which is not a good thing,” she said.

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Slotkin on PFAS bill: ‘It couldn’t get past the senators’

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