Certain medicines can cause the environmental toxin PFAS to be eliminated from the body faster, according to a study at the University of Gothenburg. The findings strengthen the research area and highlight one more medicine as effective, but whether it brings health benefits is still unclear.
The study, published in the journal Environment International, is based on controlled studies carried out in Ronneby in Blekinge, where drinking water from a municipal water treatment plant previously contained very high levels of the environmental toxin PFAS.
The discovery was made in 2013, and the contamination was found to origin from aqueous film-forming foam that had been used for decades during fire drills at the Air Force Wing F17 in Ronneby. The contaminated water was immediately replaced by clean water from another water treatment plant in the municipality.
A previous survey has shown that many residents had highly elevated levels of PFAS in their blood. It can take many years for many PFAS to be eliminated from the body, but this varies widely between individuals. The reasons for this variation is yet not fully understood.
Markedly increased elimination
The study involved 10 subjects, aged 25 to 47, who were tested with different medicines to lower the levels of PFAS in their bodies. Participants were their own control subjects by taking a medication for a 12-week period, and were without medication for the same length of time.
The PFAS substances studied were more rapidly eliminated from the body by two of the medicines: the cholesterol-lowering drug cholestyramine, which confirms the findings of a Danish study last year; and the related medicine colesevelam, where the effect on elimination has not previously been demonstrated.
“During the 12 weeks without medication, the level of the studied PFAS substances fell by a few percent, whereas the period with medication gave reductions of at most 40 percent for one of the PFAS substances,” says Axel Andersson, researcher at Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, and leader of the study.
Health impacts need to be studied
Axel Andersson also participated in the Danish study as a co-author, and he emphasizes that it is only the elimination that was investigated in both studies, not whether there are any health benefits from PFAS being eliminated from the body faster.
“In groups with high levels of PFAS in the blood, medicines can be used to lower the levels and speed up the otherwise slow elimination, there is no doubt about that, but more research is needed to demonstrate if there are health benefits in both the short and long term of lowering the levels faster. It is also important to weigh the health benefits against the potential risks,” he says.