Green Buckeye RN

Jun 23, 2009

Wang, RY, RB Jain, AF Wolkin, CH Rubin and LL Needham. 2009. Serum concentrations of selected persistent organic pollutants in a sample of pregnant females and changes in their concentrations during gestation. Environmental Health Perspectives doi: 10.1289/ehp.0800105.

Synopsis by Kathleen M. McCarty, Sc.D.

First time expectant mothers in the US have much lower blood levels of selected persistent organic pollutants than women did before the chemicals’ ban and restrictions on use and emissions.

Blood levels of some of the most dangerous compounds are decreasing in people since they were regulated some 40 years ago, finds a study comparing first time pregnant women from two different generations.

The results are consistent with prior studies and with what would be expected since the chemicals were banned or limited in the 1970s in the United States. Researchers compared levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the blood of women sampled between 1959-1966 and women from 2001-2002.

 Read further at http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/pops-blood-levels-down-in-pregnant-women/