Identifying Dietary Predictors of Per- and Polyfluoralkyl Substances Using Supervised Mixtures Methods to Inform Public Health - Relevant Dietary Interventions
This talk focuses on how diet is a major pathway of exposure to legacy PFAS (“forever chemicals”), particularly during pregnancy. It reviews evidence on how PFAS enter the food system (e.g., through contaminated water, agriculture, and food packaging) and highlights that animal-based foods like seafood, meat, and eggs tend to be associated with higher PFAS levels, while plant-based foods are often linked to lower levels. The presentation also emphasizes the complexity of studying diet, introducing advanced statistical approaches (e.g., mixture models like quantile g-computation) to better capture real-world dietary patterns. Using data from a pregnancy cohort, the speaker demonstrates how identifying dietary predictors can inform public health interventions to reduce PFAS exposure.
PFAS are persistent environmental chemicals that accumulate in food systems and human bodies, making diet an important exposure route and a target for prevention strategies.
Speaker: Heather Guetterman
Keywords: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), dietary exposure, environmental epidemiology, pregnancy cohort, food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), mixtures modeling (quantile g-computation, BKMR), seafood / animal vs plant-based foods, exposure pathways, public health intervention, chemical mixtures
Date: January 21, 2025
PFAS are persistent environmental chemicals that accumulate in food systems and human bodies, making diet an important exposure route and a target for prevention strategies.
Speaker: Heather Guetterman
Keywords: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), dietary exposure, environmental epidemiology, pregnancy cohort, food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), mixtures modeling (quantile g-computation, BKMR), seafood / animal vs plant-based foods, exposure pathways, public health intervention, chemical mixtures
Date: January 21, 2025