(NaturalNews) Many consumer and industrial products contain perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), which are highly-persistent organofluorine compounds that make certain materials oil, water, and stain resistant. But according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, PFCs in non-stick cookware, clothing, furniture, and food packaging appear to be responsible for causing vaccines to fail as well, as they can reduce antibody concentrations to levels below what is considered effective for warding off disease.

Philippe Grandjean, MD, DMSc, from the Harvard School of Public Health and his colleagues evaluated 656 children born at the National Hospital in the Faroe Islands, a country located in the Norwegian Sea, between 1999 and 2001. This study location was considered ideal because people living in the region consume lots of fish, which is closely associated with high intake of PFCs.

The team measured blood serum levels of antibodies for tetanus and diphtheria toxoids in the children at ages five and seven, and compared these levels to those of various PFCs. Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) were found to be in the highest concentrations compared to all other PFCs, and were directly associated with lowered antibody counts.

A two-fold increase in PFOS exposure among five-year-old children, for instance, was associated with a 39 percent reduction in anti-diphtheria antibody concentration. And in seven-year-old children, a two-fold increase in PFOA exposure was associated with a 36 percent and 25 percent reduction, respectively, for tetanus and diphtheria antibodies.

"The perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are highly persistent and cause contamination of drinking water, food, and food chains," wrote the authors. "If the associations are causal, the clinical importance of our findings is therefore that PFC exposure may increase a child's risk for not being protected against diphtheria and tetanus, despite a full schedule of vaccinations."

PFCs are everywhere, as evidenced by a 2004 US government study which found the chemicals in a shocking 98 percent of blood samples taken from a large pool of Americans. So if the chemicals really do inactivate vaccine potential by disabling antibodies, then vaccines may have been shown once again to be medically useless for most Americans.

At the same time, PFCs are also likely responsible for lowering natural antibody counts as well. A 2011 study out of West Virginia University found that PFCs disrupt hormonal balance and lead to early menopause in women (http://www.naturalnews.com/031846_cookware_hormones.html), while a 2009 study linked PFCs to liver damage and depressed immunity (http://www.naturalnews.com/News_000709_Teflon_PFOA_infertility.html).

Sources for this article include:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/jaaj-sel011912.php

http://www.naturalnews.com/z034803_fluorine_vaccines_non-stick_cookware.html