Exposure to Toxic Perfluorinated Compounds in Womb Linked to Low Birth Weight & Future Obesity
Perfluorochemicals or perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are found in nonstick cookware and a variety of other places—including the human blood stream. But when they are found at high levels in women, the children they carry are more likely to have a lower birth weight and are more likely to weigh more than others at a alter point in life.
Perfluorinated Compounds Linked to Low Birth Weight & Future Obesity
According to a new report, researchers looked at 450 English women who gave birth to daughters between 1991 and 1992. They measured the children’s birth weights and their weights at 20 months old. All of the pregnant women had detectable PFCs in their blood throughout the pregnancy.
Those women who had the highest levels of PFCs weighed about 5 ounces less than those with the lowest levels. When checked again at 20 months of age, those whose mothers had higher PFCs weighed 1.3 pounds more than the babies whose mothers had lower levels of the chemicals.
This research supports an earlier study which found that girls exposed to PFCs in their mother’s womb were more likely to be overweight at 20 years of age.
Scientists in both studies, however, caution that neither drew a conclusive cause and effect link, merely established a connection. In other words, they can’t say with certainty that the weight differences were directly caused by the presence of perfluorinated compounds.
PFCs are found in nonstick cookware and cardboard food packaging. To lessen the presence of PFCs in your blood, use another type of cookware and stop using the microwave. Some are also worried about microwaves negatively affecting food.
Just a few months ago, we reported on another study linking perfluorochemicals in the womb to ADHD in children. “For every additional 1 part per billion of C8 in the blood, children faced a 12 percent increased risk of ADHD,” according to that particular study.
PFCs are an invisible harm to people’s health. Whether scientists will admit causation or not, too many “casual connections” are being made to call it a mere coincidence.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) sums it up nicely:
A flood of disturbing scientific findings since the late 1990s has abruptly elevated PFCs to the rogues gallery of highly toxic, extraordinarily persistent chemicals that pervasively contaminate human blood and wildlife the world over. As more studies pour in, PFCs seem destined to supplant DDT, PCBs, dioxin and other chemicals as the most notorious, global chemical contaminants ever produced.
