Pregnant women and their unborn children face constant risks, especially at home.
Dangerous chemicals are truly unavoidable, and the proof is in our pee, said researchers from UC San Francisco and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Advanced urinalysis has shown that virtually all pregnant women — and especially women of color — in the United States are regularly exposed to chemicals that have been linked to cancer and can harm a developing child.
“These chemicals are of great concern because of their links to cancer and developmental toxicity, but they are not routinely monitored in the United States,” said the study’s co-senior author and professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine, Tracey J. Woodruff. statement.
The study, published Tuesday in Chemosphere, aimed to detect up to 45 chemicals that have been linked to cancer and other risks. The team enrolled 171 pregnant women — 34% white, 40% Latina, 20% black, 4% Asian, and 3% multiracial or “other” — enrolled in the National Institutes of Health’s Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, to participate.
Using new urine testing methods, samples from nearly all of the 171 research participants showed traces of melamine – a carcinogen that is commonly used in the manufacture of dishes, plastics, flooring, kitchen counters and pesticides, among other products – according to the Food and Drug Administration. The chemical was eventually identified as a kidney toxin following fatal food poisonings in 2004, 2007 and 2008, and led to kidney stones, urinary tract obstruction and death in some victims – although is still widely used. Other animal experiments have suggested it may also impair brain function.
Melamine was just one of the largest groups of ammonia derivatives, called amines, observed throughout the study and found in hair dye, mascara, tattoo ink, paint, tobacco smoke and diesel exhaust, among other parameters. Meanwhile, cyanuric acid, a melamine byproduct found in cleaning solvents and used to stabilize plastics, was also commonly seen in pregnant women.
The researchers point out that the interaction between melamine and cyanuric acid is known to be even more toxic than itself.
Jessie Buckley, a Johns Hopkins professor of public health and the study’s other co-lead author, called the results “puzzling,” especially for non-white women.
“We continue to find higher levels of many of these harmful chemicals in people of color,” Buckley said, referring to several previous studies that found a disproportionate amount of potentially harmful substances in beauty and beauty products. hair care for women of African descent.
Researchers point to a lack of oversight in manufacturing, particularly around products made expressly for people of color. For example, levels of the chemical 3,4-dichloroaniline, often used to make dyes and pesticides, were more than 100% higher in black and Latina women than in white women.
“Regulatory action is clearly needed to limit exposure,” said study co-author Giehae Choi.