I had a question which most of the article just barely touched on: a lot of attention goes to how much PFAS is detected in people’s blood, but I wanted to know (A) what the harms are, and (B) how strong the evidence is for each one, since afaik they aren’t and probably can’t do randomized trials where they just spray a bunch of Scotchgard in the mouths of half the test subjects.

Using an AI answer as a jumping off point, it looks like the possible harms are:

• Higher cholesterol — (Strong)

• Reduced vaccine antibody response — (Strong)

• Pregnancy‑induced hypertension / preeclampsia — (Strong)

• Lower birth weight / impaired fetal growth — (Strong)

• Kidney cancer (PFOA) — (Contested)

• Testicular cancer (PFOA) — (Limited)

• Thyroid disease — (Limited)

• Liver enzyme changes / fatty liver risk — (Limited)

• Immune issues beyond vaccines (asthma, infections) — (Emerging)

• Diabetes / metabolic effects — (Emerging)

• Neurodevelopmental / behavioral effects — (Emerging)

• Other cancers (breast, prostate, etc.) — (Inconclusive)

Obviously, this isn’t verified research, but I wanted to know what the concrete risks actually were since at this moment, it seems like most of us are probably stuck with the PFAS already in our environment and bodies.