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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0000CC"><a href="http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2017/march/pregnant-women2019s-sex-hormones-waver-with-phthalate-exposure">http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2017/march/pregnant-women2019s-sex-hormones-waver-with-phthalate-exposure</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0000CC"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:7.5pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;margin-left:0in">
<span style="font-size:21.0pt;font-family:"inherit","serif";color:#333333">Pregnant women’s sex hormones waver with phthalate exposure
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><i><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">Study links food packaging chemicals to lower testosterone, vital for male fetuses’ growth.</span></i><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">March 9, 2017<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">By Brian Bienkowski<br>
Environmental Health News <br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">Women exposed to certain chemicals in flooring and food packaging early in pregnancy are more likely to have decreased free testosterone—hormones
vital for fetal growth, according to a new study.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333;background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow">Estrogen and testosterone drive a fetus’ genital development the first five to 18 weeks
of a pregnancy. Altered levels of the sex hormones can lead to abnormalities in a baby’s genitals. While the study doesn’t prove phthalates in pregnant women lead to genital problems in babies, it suggests that the ubiquitous chemicals may impact fetal growth.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">Researchers tested for evidence of phthalate chemicals in the urine of 591 women during their first trimester, from conception
to 13 weeks. This window is the most important time for reproductive organ development in fetuses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">Women with higher levels of two types of phthalates had lower levels of free testosterone, according to the study published today
in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">Levels of free testosterone—the form of the hormone not bound to a protein in the blood—in the women were 12 percent lower for
every 10-fold increase in the chemicals.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333;background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow">Free testosterone is important: Women with higher levels of free testosterone had a lower
prevalence of baby boys with genital abnormalities, the authors reported. “Adequate testosterone concentrations are needed for normal male reproductive genital development.”</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#057234">"We need to ask ourselves if we are adequately protecting the public."-Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana, University of Washington</span></i></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">This study adds to the already considerable evidence to the impact of phthalates on humans.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">“We need to ask ourselves if we are adequately protecting the public” when it comes to phthalates in consumer products, said lead
author Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana, an associate professor at the University of Washington Department of Pediatrics.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">Most people have phthalates in their bodies as the chemicals are used widely in vinyl flooring, cosmetics, detergents, lubricants
and food packages. The types of phthalates in this study were probably in dust or on food, rather than from cosmetics, Sathyanarayana said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">Researchers have previously found associations between phthalates and birth problems. In
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11099647"><span style="color:#253B8F;text-decoration:none">studies of rats</span></a>, for example, when unborn males are exposed to phthalates in the womb it leads to reduced testosterone and genital defects such
as hypospadias.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">In humans, researchers have linked certain phthalates to a
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25697839"><span style="color:#253B8F;text-decoration:none">reduced distance between genitals and the anus</span></a>, altered
<a href="http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2015/jul/phthalates-phenols-endocrine-disruption-pregnant-women-health-fetus">
<span style="color:#253B8F;text-decoration:none">placental genes</span></a> and <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/phthalates-exposure-pregnancy-loss-gestational-diabetes/">
<span style="color:#253B8F;text-decoration:none">miscarriages</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333;background:yellow;mso-highlight:yellow">Despite growing evidence that phthalates are endocrine disruptors and can alter human hormones
at low doses, they’re still pumped into our goods: The <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/phthalates_actionplan_revised_2012-03-14.pdf">
<span style="color:#253B8F;text-decoration:none">U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates</span></a> more than 470 million pounds of phthalates are produced each year.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">Six types of phthalates are banned from kids’ toys. The EPA, which regulates potentially harmful chemicals under the Toxic Substances
Control Act, also <a href="https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca/phthalates">
<span style="color:#253B8F;text-decoration:none">requires manufacturers</span></a> to notify the EPA if they’re going to use a phthalate called DnPP in a product so the agency can deem if it’s necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">One limit of the current study is that phthalates are so ubiquitous that body levels can swing rapidly in response to exposure.
A single urine measurement may not be an accurate picture of the woman’s exposure.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">“Phthalate concentrations can change substantially with time of day and depending on what the subject has eaten recently,” the
authors wrote.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">Karin Michels, professor and chair at UCLA’s Department of Epidemiology, said the study also could have benefitted by testing
the hormones in the cord blood of the babies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">She said pregnant women’s hormones are already vacillating and that free testosterone is pretty low to begin with.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">The women in the study are part of a group called The Infant Development and the Environment Study, which researchers are using
to study how common chemicals affect pregnancy and birth outcomes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#333333">The mothers were from one of four clinical centers: the University of California, San Francisco, the University of Minnesota,
the University of Rochester Medical Center, or the Seattle Children’s Hospital/University of Washington.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0000CC"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#0000CC"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;color:#000099">Deborah L. DeBiasi<br>
<b>Email: <a href="mailto:Deborah.DeBiasi@deq.virginia.gov"><span style="color:#000099">Deborah.DeBiasi@deq.virginia.gov</span></a><i><br>
</i></b>WEB site address: <a href="http://www.deq.virginia.gov/"><span style="color:#000099">www.deq.virginia.gov</span></a><br>
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality<br>
Office of Water Permits <br>
Industrial Pretreatment/Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) Program<br>
PPCPs, EDCs, and Microconstituents<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;color:#000099"><a href="http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/PermittingCompliance/PollutionDischargeElimination/Microconstituents.aspx"><span style="color:#000099">http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/PermittingCompliance/PollutionDischargeElimination/Microconstituents.aspx</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;color:#000099">Mail: P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA 23218<br>
Location: 629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA 23219<br>
PH: 804-698-4028 FAX: 804-698-4032</span><span style="font-size:9.0pt;color:navy"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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