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Middle-aged women may be at a higher risk of diabetes due to 'forever chemicals' in cosmetics and non-stick cooking pans, a study claims.
Researchers found women with high levels of the substances in their blood had up to double the chance of developing the disease.
Polyfluoroalkyls – or PFAS – have been dubbed ‘forever chemicals’ because they are designed not to break down in the environment.
They featured in the Hollywood film Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo after a community’s water was poisoned by the chemicals from the local plant.
There are around 5,000 different types of the chemicals and they have been linked to a range of health issues, including cancer, high blood pressure and birth defects.
Two villages in Cambridgeshire had to drink bottled water after it emerged their local drinking water was contaminated with a similar ‘forever chemical'.
The latest study looked at 3,302 premenopausal women aged 42-52 years whose blood was first sampled between 1996-1997, and repeated periodically until 2017.
Researchers, led Dr Sung Kyun Park at the University of Michigan, tested for the presence of environmental chemicals including seven PFAS.
'Forever chemicals' in cosmetics and non-stick pans can more than double you risk of diabetes, a study claims
The authors said: ‘Higher serum concentrations of certain PFAS were associated with higher risk of incident diabetes in midlife women.’
They also noted: ‘The joint effects of PFAS mixtures were greater than those for individual PFAS, suggesting a potential additive or synergistic effect of multiple PFAS on diabetes risk.’
