PFCs increase infertility risk.
A Charleston Gazette article nicely reviews a recent study on the risk of infertility in women with higher levels of PFOS and PFOA, though the explanation of the data could be simpler.
Higher blood levels of PFOA and PFOS are associated with increased risk of infertility, according to a new study published this week in the journal Human Reproduction.
This study was reported by the Charleston Gazette in a thorough article describing not only the study's findings, but how these new data relate to local West Virginia residents. Mr. Ward does a good job reporting on the key finding of this article ("The study is believed to be the first to link infertility in women to C8"), as well as some of the key facts on how this epidemiological study was performed.
Importantly, Mr. Ward reported on how the levels of PFOA in the women participating in this study (who were part of the Danish National Cohort Study) relate to levels in humans on average. Moreover, he did an excellent job explaining the quartile data as four "ranges".
Although this was overall a nice article by Mr. Ward, the data could have been presented in a more straightforward manner. The report discusses the findings as a percentage of increased likelihood of infertility. Though technically correct, this approach is a clunky way to look at these findings for the lay person.
The article states: "For PFOA, the likelihood of infertility increased by 60 percent to 154 percent for women in the three higher ranges, compared to the lowest range. For PFOS, the likelihood of infertility increased by 70 percent to 134 percent."
Perhaps a more useful way to convey these results to the public might have been to say the following, for example: at the lowest levels of PFOA, fewer than one in ten women suffered infertility problems. However, at the three highest ranges of PFOA, that rate approximately doubled to two women out of every ten.
