Researchers at Brown University analyzed eight cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, spanning 2003 through 2018, comparing serum PFAS concentrations across 1,552 veterans and 11,415 non-veterans, a sample that represents roughly 22.8 million U.S. adults with prior military service once weighted. The findings, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, found no overall difference between veterans and civilians, consistent with other recent PFAS biomonitoring work showing that exposure gaps often only appear once researchers narrow in on a specific subgroup. Narrowed to veterans ages 20 to 39, the picture changed. That group showed PFOA levels 13% higher, PFOS 19% higher, and PFHxS 24% higher than civilians the same age, with a combined measure of seven clinically tracked PFAS running 17% higher overall.
Younger veterans were also 18% more likely than similarly aged civilians to have combined PFAS concentrations at or above 20 nanograms per milliliter, the threshold at which the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends additional clinical monitoring. Lead author Christian Hoover, a pre-doctoral fellow in Brown's School of Public Health, said the finding comes with a direct recommendation attached: male veterans between 20 and 39 should consider asking a doctor about PFAS testing. Brown epidemiologist Joseph Braun added that the age pattern likely reflects how recently younger veterans left active service, since PFOA's roughly 18-to-24-month half-life means blood concentrations decline for years after exposure ends.
The Study Cannot Say Where Exposure Happened, Only That a Gap Exists
NHANES does not record a veteran's occupation, branch, or years since service, so the researchers could not tie elevated levels to a specific installation or duty. The VA and Defense Department both list contaminated water and aqueous film-forming foam, the firefighting foam long used to suppress jet-fuel fires, as established PFAS exposure pathways tied to military service, and the study's authors named foam, munitions, and groundwater contamination as plausible sources without being able to isolate which one drove the pattern. Results also varied by sex. Female veterans showed a 37% lower prevalence of elevated PFAS than female civilians, while the difference among male veterans overall did not reach statistical significance, a reminder that the youngest-veteran finding is a subgroup result, not a blanket claim about military service.
VA Testing Has Not Caught Up to the Exposure Pathways It Already Recognizes
PFAS blood testing is not currently offered at VA medical centers, and the department directs concerned veterans toward private testing instead. What the VA does offer, mandatory toxic-exposure screening at enrollment and at least every five years, plus more detailed Military Environmental Exposure Assessments, documents potential hazards and deployment history but stops short of measuring PFAS in a veteran's blood. The VA also has no PFAS-linked presumptive conditions for disability claims, meaning each case is evaluated individually, though the department has been reviewing since September 2024 whether kidney cancer should become one under the PACT Act process, a review its PFAS page listed as ongoing as of an April 2026 update.
The Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record compiles deployment history, duty locations, and occupational exposure data from federal sources, and the Military Health System has forecast veteran access to individual exposure summaries beginning in fall 2026. Paired with more granular PFAS research, that record could eventually let scientists move past the broad category of veteran status and test whether specific occupations or installations carry the elevated risk this study found only in aggregate, part of a wider push for stronger biomonitoring and accountability as federal PFAS policy enters a new phase.
