Story at a glance
- Researchers from the University of California San Francisco collected the blood of 30 pregnant women, along with samples from their umbilical cords.
- People are exposed to the synthetic chemicals through a range of products.
- The chemicals found are used to make plastics more pliable, as well as for pharmaceuticals, consumer products, pesticides and flame retardants.
A study has found evidence of dozens of synthetic chemicals previously undetected in humans in the blood of pregnant women and their newborns.
Researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) collected the blood of 30 pregnant women, along with samples from their umbilical cords, and analyzed them using high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) to identify human-made chemicals in the blood.
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Scientists detected 109 chemicals during the study, including 55 never reported in humans and 42 labeled “mystery chemicals” with no sources or known uses. Researchers said the chemicals most likely come from consumer products or other industrial sources, and the fact they were found in both the blood of the pregnant women and their children suggest they travel through the mother’s placenta.
“These chemicals have probably been in people for quite some time, but our technology is now helping us to identify more of them,” Tracey J. Woodruff, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCSF, said.
People are exposed to the synthetic chemicals by eating and drinking foods that have made contact with containers as well as through a range of other products. The chemicals found are used to make plastics more pliable, as well as for pharmaceuticals, consumer products, pesticides and flame retardants. They also include perfluorooctanoic acid (PFAS) compounds, which have been used in a variety of industries — mostly as coatings to resist grease, oil or water — around the world and the U.S. since the 1940s.
“It is alarming that we keep seeing certain chemicals travel from pregnant women to their children, which means these chemicals can be with us for generations,” she said.
The study was published in Environmental Science and Technology.
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