Posted on 05/11/2022 at 10:28 a.m.,
Reading 3 mins.
A study by American scientists shows that women are increasingly exposed to endocrine disruptors during pregnancy. How to avoid them? The advice of Dr. Odile Bagot, gynecologist, member of the Doctissimo expert committee and author of the book “Endocrine disruptors, war has been declared! And now what do we do?” at Mango editions.
This study appeared online May 10 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. It was carried out by researchers from the University of California at San Francisco in the United States. They show that women of Latin origin, in particular, are more exposed than before to endocrine disruptors.
A job that sifts through more than 100 chemicals
To arrive at these results, the authors first recruited a very diverse group of 171 pregnant women with different ethnic origins: 34% Caucasian, 40% Latin American, 20% women of color and 6% other diverse origins.
To check for the presence of endocrine disruptors in their bodies, the researchers measured 103 chemicals in their urine, mostly pesticides, plastics, and chemical substitutes for BPA and phthalates.
Follow your pregnancy week by week
Exposure to neonicotinoids, but not only
Their findings show an increasing exposure of these women to various endocrine disruptors, including neonicotinoids, a kind of pesticide toxic to bees.
In total, more than 80% of the chemicals were found in at least one of the women in the study, and more than a third of the chemicals were found in the majority of the participants and this, in quantities greater than this. which had been observed in previous studies.
Latin American women more at risk
The other remark made by the researchers is that women of Latin American origin were more exposed to parabens, phthalates and bisphenols. “This could be the result of higher exposures to products containing chemicals, such as processed foods or personal care products.explains one of the authors of this work, Prof. Jessie Buckley, associate professor of environmental health and engineering and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Greater exposure than in the past
For Professor Tracey J. Woodruff, lead author of the study, “this is the first time we have been able to measure the amounts of chemicals in such a large and diverse group of pregnant women and not just identify the chemicals. The results clearly show that the number and range of chemicals in pregnant women increases during a very vulnerable developmental period for both the pregnant person and the fetus.”.
Where do these endocrine disruptors come from?
Endocrine disruptors come from industrial chemicals, which women can inhale through air pollution but also via food, water, plastics or industrial consumer products. And the most serious thing is that they remain poorly monitored, even though their impact on human health can be significant.
Dr. Odile Bagot, gynecologist, knows the subject of endocrine disruptors well. To protect against this, she therefore advises to choose as far as possible fruits and vegetables from organic farming for your diet, to peel them well. “You can then soak them for 15 minutes in water with sodium bicarbonate, this eliminates some of the toxins“advises the specialist.
“In the kitchen, you can also use it for cleaning or choose lemon or white vinegar, so many effective natural products” she adds. Finally, remember to ventilate your home as much as possible. “And especially“advises Dr. Bagot again,”if you have to welcome a baby, wash his clothes and prepare his bed and the furniture in his room early enough so that they can evacuate the toxic elements that compose them as much as possiblet”.