Studies have shown that a complex of endocrine disruptors encountered during pregnancy affects a child's brain development and language acquisition. Endocrine disruptors, called "environmental hormones," refer to environmental chemicals that are constantly encountered in daily life, such as plastic products, that inhibit hormones present inside the human body.
A new study conducted with the European Union Support Project (EDC-MixRisk) linked experiments in cell and animal models to humans, showing that 54% of pregnant women were exposed to the risk of endocrine disruptors at experimentally defined levels. Although traditional risk assessment methods address exposure to individual chemicals, this study suggests the need to consider exposure to the same chemicals in the composite in the future. In Sweden, universities and research institutes from Italy, Finland, Germany, Greece and the United States participated in the study, including Uppsala University, Kalstad University, Karolinska Institute, and Stockholm University.
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Evidence that endocrine disruptors can be dangerous to the health and development of humans and animals is steadily increasing. Numerous new compounds are pouring in every year, including water, food, and air, plastic derivatives that enter the human body from various sources. Although these products can meet the exposure criteria for individual chemicals, they are likely to exceed each individual standard as they are exposed to countless compounds in real life.
The study was based on an ongoing SELMA study at the University of Kalstad in Sweden. SELMA is a study that tracks about 2,000 pairs of mothers from the beginning of pregnancy to the child's school age, and aims to investigate the effects of endocrine disruptor exposure on the child's health and late-stage development.
Through the SELMA study, complex substances were identified in the blood and urine of pregnant women, which was found to be related to delayed speech development in children aged 30 months. Specifically, 54% of children were exposed to complex substances above the level expected to affect neural development in fetal life, showing that there is a risk of language development being delayed. This risk was not evident when the existing acceptance criteria for individual chemicals were applied.
Barbara Demenea, professor of physiology and endocrinology at the Paris Museum of Natural History, said, "One of the most affected hormonal pathways was thyroid hormone. "It is not surprising that a mother's exposure to complex substances is linked to a child's speech delay because brain growth and development require optimal levels of thyroid hormone early in pregnancy," he said.
Writer: Yeyoung Jeon