Chemical exposure may compromise vaccine response

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) -- organic chemicals containing fluorine -- are used in food packaging and industrial manufacturing. They can be detected in many animals, including humans. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association now shows that elevated levels of these chemicals in human blood are associated with a threefold increase in the risk of vaccines failing to protect against diseases such as tetanus 1. This reduced response could mean that PFCs harm the immune system, says Philippe Grandjean, an environmental epidemiologist at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, and lead author of the paper. "It's likely this is going to be a programming effect that is going to stay with these kids for their whole lifetimes." "The data in this paper is very consistent with what has been published in the laboratory-animal literature in the past few years," she says. "These compounds are immunosuppressive." Grandjean's team gathered its data in the Faroe Islands, studying 587 children born at the National Hospital in Tórshavn in 1999-2001. They then compared these data with the children's immune responses to tetanus and diphtheria vaccines at the ages of five and seven.