What is in this article?:
- New study identifies chemicals in pregnant women
- Constant exposure
- Lingering chemicals
- Why are pregnant women especially at risk?
- Reduce exposure
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco identified 163 chemicals—including phthalates, flame retardants and long-banned pesticides—in 268 pregnant women.
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Pregnant women don’t drink, yet their bodies carry a cocktail of health-harming chemicals, a new study found. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco identified 163 chemicals—including phthalates, flame retardants and long-banned pesticides—in blood and urine samples of 268 pregnant participants of the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey. While the UCSF analysis didn’t directly link these chemicals to health issues as several prior studies have, it is the first official tally of how many toxins pregnant women encounter.
The researchers chose to examine chemicals that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had previously detected in human blood and urine and that had shown in animal studies to be reproductive or developmental toxicants, said Ami Zota, PhD, coauthor of the study. “Many have not been examined extensively in human studies, but they’ve shown to harm the fetus in animal studies,” she said.
Researchers found phthalates, phenols, perchlorate, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (such as DDT), perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) and polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons in 99 percent to 100 percent of pregnant women. They identified bisphenol A (BPA) in 96 percent of participants, and the antibacterial triclosan in 87 percent.
While some of these toxins have been or are being phased out of widespread commercial and industrial use—such as DDT, which was banned in the U.S. in 1972—other chemicals are found in a wide range of consumer products, meaning pregnant women are exposed to them constantly. For instance, phthalates—endocrine-disrupting plasticizers and solvents that have been linked to behavioral and developmental problems in offspring of exposed pregnant women—are common in cosmetics, personal care products and all kinds of synthetic fragrances. BPA comes from cans, plastic bottles, thermal store receipts, food packaging and microwave popcorn bags, while toothpastes and antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers can contain triclosan.