Researchers from the University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Finland, and Örebro University, Sweden, have discovered that the levels of PFAS in mothers’ blood during pregnancy is associated with their children’s brain structure and function.

In recent years, researchers have found associations between the levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in mothers’ blood during pregnancy, and their children’s neurodevelopmental outcomes. A recent study led by the University of Turku, Finland, expands on this by demonstrating that maternal PFAS predict their children’s brain structural and functional outcomes.

PFAS are man-made chemicals used in manufacturing products resistant to water, oil, temperature, or electrical conductivity, such as cooking utensils, clothes, furniture, food packaging, flooring, dental floss, and firefighting foams. Similar to plastics, they are non-biodegradable, and have been nicknamed “forever chemicals” for this reason. They are now found in all ecosystems on earth, and their presence in the soil is estimated to last for over 1,000 years.

“We were able to measure seven different PFAS in this study, and found that individual compounds had specific associations with offspring brain structure, and in some cases two different PFAS had opposite relationships with the same brain region,” explains Professor Tuulia Hyötyläinen from Örebro University.

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The study was published on 10 October 2025 in The Lancet Planetary Health, and was funded by the EU Horizon Europe programme project “Inflammation in human early life: targeting impacts on life-course health” INITIALISE.

INITIALISE (Inflammation in human early life: targeting impacts on life-course health) is an EU funded project that aims to elucidate how exposures and genome impact gut microbiome, host immune system and metabolism, and how the interplay of these factors impact life-course health. INITIALISE aims to define the role of the maturation of the immune system as a mediator between exposures and life-course health. Turku Bioscience PIs Riitta Lahesmaa, Matej Oresic and affiliated PI Mikael Knip are partners of the project. INITIALISE website>>