Short-term exposure to a cocktail of forever chemicals at the same levels found in the environment could disrupt hormones and sperm counts in male mice and cause abnormalities in their embryos, an Australian study has found.

The research by the University of Newcastle is believed to be the first animal testing done on environmentally relevant levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a family of synthetic chemicals that has emerged as a major environmental pollutant, particularly because of its historical use in firefighting foam.

Co-author Dr Jacinta Martin said the research, which was published on Tuesday night in the journal Communication Biology, based the levels and exact mix of PFAS types on water samples taken from a well at the Williamtown contamination site near

See Full Page