PFAS and Economic Development in Southeast Asia

Le résumé fourni par la source

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent industrial chemicals whose environmental and health risks are increasingly recognized, yet their economic implications in Southeast Asia remain poorly quantified. This study provides an exploratory cross-country assessment of associations between PFAS exposure and three development outcomes: GDP growth, human development, and export growth. Secondary country-level data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, multiple linear regression, and income-group mean comparisons. The available analytical samples were small (N = 7–10, depending on the model), reflecting substantial regional data limitations. PFAS was moderately negatively associated with GDP growth (r = −0.521), but the relationship was not statistically significant (p = .426). In the GDP model, PFAS had the largest standardized coefficient (β = −0.478, p = .156), while the overall model was not significant. For human development, the model explained 74.0% of observed variance, but PFAS was not significant (β = .160, p = .583); poverty rate showed the largest negative coefficient (β = −.850, p = .085). PFAS was essentially unrelated to export growth (r = .042, p = .914), and the export model showed severe overfitting (adjusted R² = −.432). Accordingly, the study does not establish a statistically robust economic effect of PFAS in Southeast Asia. Rather, it identifies suggestive patterns and, more importantly, a major regional evidence gap. The findings support investment in harmonized PFAS monitoring and larger longitudinal datasets before strong causal or policy claims are made.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.