Tania Pacheco-Werner put on her walking shoes. She was halfway through her first pregnancy and had just been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Her doctor’s advice? Stay active. But Pacheco-Werner lives just outside Fresno. It was summer, and well over 100 degrees. The air outside was also thick with wildfire smoke from nearby forest fires — an increasingly common occurrence due to climate change.
It's a normal reaction for any expectant mother. But worrying during pregnancy may raise the risk of a premature birth, a study suggested Monday. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles found those who suffered anxiety had a significantly higher risk of going into labor early.
In the past few months, people across the U.S. have faced extreme climate hazards such as wildfires on the West Coast, flooding that contributed to undrinkable water in Mississippi and left hundreds homeless in eastern Kentucky, and record-breaking heat waves. Concurrently, four states have passed near-total abortion bans, and the first abortion ban passed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade has taken effect in Indiana.
Researchers who floated a 2019 proposal for prioritizing chemicals for TSCA review based on their prevalence in Americans and their environment have published a new paper that identifies as particular priorities substances, such as melamine, that EPA itself has not yet addressed -- a disconnect that one co-author says is proof of “flaws” in the toxics program. The new study , published Aug. 30 by the journal Chemosphere , builds on a 2019 paper that set out a framework for...
Revelations of toxic risks to pregnant people seem to emerge with alarming frequency. In late August a peer-reviewed study published in Chemosphere finds that the compound melamine, its primary byproduct (cyanuric acid), and four aromatic amines were detected in the urine of nearly all pregnant research participants. These chemicals are associated with increased risks of cancer, kidney toxicity, and/or developmental harm to the resultant child. Beyond Pesticides has covered a variety of pregnancy risks from pesticides and other toxic chemicals, including these in just the last three years: pesticides and children’s sleep disorders; prenatal exposures to a multitude of chemicals; insecticides and childhood leukemia; insecticides and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
Pregnant people are unknowingly being exposed to harmful chemicals that can increase the risk of cancer and harm child development, according to a new study by a team of researchers at University of California, San Francisco, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Early-life vulnerability to environmental exposures was explored during a four-day National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) workshop, held Aug 1-4. “Children’s Environmental Health: A Workshop on Future Priorities for Environmental Health Sciences,” sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), featured several NIEHS scientists and grantees who shared their expertise, offered advice, and discussed how environmental health sciences can help inform policy.
Pregnant women are exposed to toxic chemicals in dishware, hair coloring, plastics and pesticides that can heighten their risk of cancer and harm child development, a new study warns.
Pregnant people are being exposed through various household products to toxic compounds that can increase the risk of cancer and harm child development, a new study has found.
UCSF Fresno is working in partnership with investigators at the UCSF School of Medicine in San Francisco, Community Regional Medical Center (CRMC) in Fresno, and UC Berkeley on a large OB/GYN observational cohort study to enhance understanding of how multiple exposures to environmental chemicals and pollutants affect pregnant women and their offspring.
Systematic review specialists say a recent peer-review of EPA’s draft TSCA model for applying that tool to risk evaluations shows the agency still has not acted on what they say is repeated advice from expert panels for fundamental changes to its approach, spurring “frustration” with a process they say is slowing chemical rules crucial to protecting public health.
Last month the Federal Drug Administration announced it would reconsider the safety of the chemical bisphenol-a (BPA), which is commonly found in food packaging and that California has already deemed toxic to reproductive health.
A top EPA official says the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) will take “a year-ish” to complete its peer review report on the draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment of formaldehyde, further delaying release of a final assessment and narrowing the window even more for including it in a TSCA evaluation of the chemical. Speaking at a July 13 session of the Toxicology Forum’s summer meeting in Arlington, VA, EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD)’s Chemical and Pollutant...
An influential academic program is criticizing key aspects of EPA’s new draft risk assessment of formaldehyde, echoing industry claims that the agency has not fully engaged with the National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) past recommendations and unduly limited public input, but also environmentalists’ argument that the new review understates leukemia risks. In recently released comments on the draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) formaldehyde assessment, scientists associated with the University of California-San Francisco’s Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment...
Whether or not you’ve heard of the chemical bisphenol A, better known as BPA, studies show that it’s almost certainly in your body. BPA is used in the manufacturing of products like plastic water bottles, baby bottles, toys and food packaging, including in the lining of cans.