Thursday
Jun252009
Thu, June 25, 2009 | Lisa Barger Phthalates & Low Birth Weight
“Someone told me that a chemical in perfumes can affect the way babies develop sexually and then yesterday there was a story on the news about it causing babies to be born smaller. Is this really something we should worry about?”
Well, only your doctor can tell you if this is something you should be worrying about but the news story you saw that linked phthalates to low birth weight seems to be based on pretty credible evidence.
Phthalates, which you can pronounce simply as “tha-lates” are chemicals used primarily in plastics. They can also be found, as you pointed out, in cosmetics and toiletries but they’re primarily used in the plastics industry. They’re the chemicals that make plastics soft and comfortable to hold.
The study linking phthalates to low birth weight was published in The Journal of Pediatrics and came out of China. What researchers did for this study was to look at 201 newborns and compare the normal-birth weight babies with the low-birth weight babies. They also looked at things like the “purity” of the cord blood, the mother’s blood and other factors.
What they ultimately found was that 70% of the babies, regardless of birth weight, had noticeable levels of phthalates in their systems. But the highest levels were found in the smallest babies.
Does this mean that a mother’s exposure to phthalates increases her risk of having a low-birth-weight baby? It seems to because there were no other significant differences. The babies were all born around the same time and the mothers had all received roughly the same level of prenatal care. Even things like the prenatal vitamins the mothers took were taken into account.
Unfortunately, phthalates are all around us in this modern society of ours. You can limit your risk somewhat but eliminating them completely is all but impossible. If this is something you’re worried about, talk to your doctor.
References:
Zhang, Y, et al. (2009). Phthalate Levels and Low Birth Weight: A Nested Case-Control Study of Chinese Newborns. The Journal of Pediatrics.
Well, only your doctor can tell you if this is something you should be worrying about but the news story you saw that linked phthalates to low birth weight seems to be based on pretty credible evidence.
Phthalates, which you can pronounce simply as “tha-lates” are chemicals used primarily in plastics. They can also be found, as you pointed out, in cosmetics and toiletries but they’re primarily used in the plastics industry. They’re the chemicals that make plastics soft and comfortable to hold.
The study linking phthalates to low birth weight was published in The Journal of Pediatrics and came out of China. What researchers did for this study was to look at 201 newborns and compare the normal-birth weight babies with the low-birth weight babies. They also looked at things like the “purity” of the cord blood, the mother’s blood and other factors.
What they ultimately found was that 70% of the babies, regardless of birth weight, had noticeable levels of phthalates in their systems. But the highest levels were found in the smallest babies.
Does this mean that a mother’s exposure to phthalates increases her risk of having a low-birth-weight baby? It seems to because there were no other significant differences. The babies were all born around the same time and the mothers had all received roughly the same level of prenatal care. Even things like the prenatal vitamins the mothers took were taken into account.
Unfortunately, phthalates are all around us in this modern society of ours. You can limit your risk somewhat but eliminating them completely is all but impossible. If this is something you’re worried about, talk to your doctor.
References:
Zhang, Y, et al. (2009). Phthalate Levels and Low Birth Weight: A Nested Case-Control Study of Chinese Newborns. The Journal of Pediatrics.
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