Study Finds High Levels of Flame Retardant Chemicals in California Pregnant Women

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2011/08/10425/study-finds-high-levels-flame-retardant-chemicals-california-pregnant-women

Study Finds High Levels of Flame Retardant Chemicals in California Pregnant Women

Source:
Karin Rush-Monroe
[e-mail]
415-502-6397

August 10, 2011

A UCSF-led pilot study in San Francisco has found the highest levels ever reported among pregnant women worldwide of banned chemicals used in flame retardants, a likely result, they believe, of California’s strict flammability regulations.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were added to consumer products, such as electronics and foam in furniture beginning in the 1970s. The chemicals slow ignition and the rate at which a fire grows, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

…

The research team found high levels of the chemicals, as well as the products that result when the flame retardants break down in the body, in 25 second-trimester pregnant women from Northern and Central California seeking care in San Francisco. While the data are preliminary, researchers also found that higher PBDE levels in the pregnant women were associated with thyroid hormone disruption.

“These important results, showing that pregnant women in this California population are exposed to high levels of certain flame retardants, is a key part of our work to understand and address multiple chemical exposures that occur during this sensitive time period,” said senior author http://profiles.ucsf.edu/ProfileDetails.aspx?Person=4636701">Tracey Woodruff, PhD, director of the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, part of the UCSF Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences.

The study abstract is available online today in the journal http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es200422b">Environmental Science and Technology.

…

[liberal N proud]

1. There could be a joke there but it is not funny

Contamination is terrible thing.