A recent study says that exposure to chemicals used to make non-stick cookware and which are found in microwave popcorn may increase the blood cholesterol levels in children.

Stephanie Frisbee of West Virginia University School of Medicine led other researchers and assessed blood lipid levels in 12,476 children and teens aged one to 18 years for the study published in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Association.

Children participating in the study were part of a heath project which started after a lawsuit was settled in 2002 after perfluoro-octanoic acid (PFOA) was detected in the water supply in the mid-Ohio River Valley.

Children have to be exposed to the contaminated drinking water for at least one year to be a part of the project.

The authors of the study said, “PFOA and PFOS specifically, and possibly perfluoroalkyl acids as a general class, appear to be associated with serum lipids, and the association seems to exist at levels of PFOA and PFOS exposure that are in the range characterized by nationally representative studies.”