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Scientists at UC San Francisco have detected 109 chemicals in a study of pregnant women, including 55 chemicals never before reported in people and 42 mystery chemicals, whose sources and uses are unknown.
The chemicals most likely come from consumer products or other industrial sources. They were found both in the blood of pregnant women, as well as their newborn children, suggesting they are traveling through the mother s placenta.
The study will be published March 17, 2021, in
Environmental Science & Technology. These chemicals have probably been in people for quite some time, but our technology is now helping us to identify more of them, said Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCSF.
Date Time
Study Finds Evidence of 55 Chemicals Never Before Reported in People
Scientists at UC San Francisco have detected 109 chemicals in a study of pregnant women, including 55 chemicals never before reported in people and 42 “mystery chemicals,” whose sources and uses are unknown.
The chemicals most likely come from consumer products or other industrial sources. They were found both in the blood of pregnant women, as well as their newborn children, suggesting they are traveling through the mother’s placenta.
The study was published March 17 in Environmental Science & Technology.
“These chemicals have probably been in people for quite some time, but our technology is now helping us to identify more of them,” said Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCSF.
A wake-up call.
That’s how Barnstable County Commissioner Mark Forest described a Harvard University study published last week that found PFAS “forever chemicals” linked to cancer, immune suppression, low birth weight and other conditions have contaminated more groundwater on Cape Cod than was previously known.
The study, published in the journal “Environmental Science & Technology,” included revelations that previously unknown levels of the chemicals were present in Mashpee and Hyannis watersheds, potentially putting drinking water at risk.
Researchers used a new testing method that detected more PFAS than the tests regularly used by state and federal officials.
The total levels of PFAS detected in the three sites tested by researchers were all above the maximum levels set by the state for drinking water, according to Bridger Ruyles, the study’s lead author.
Mar 11 2021 Read 455 Times
Author: Gareth West on behalf of Astell Scientific Ltd
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“So, what happens with your Biosafety Level 3 lab waste?” I asked the laboratory manager. “Our safety assessment says to just mix it with sterilant wash it down the drain - there is worse stuff down there already.” “How about genetically modified material?” “Yeah, that goes the same way - It’ll die in the drains”.
Treating biologically hazardous waste in such a way is not uncommon in the UK - the combination of chemical sterilants and a well-developed system of sewerage and treatment plants can handle a wide range of biologically active substances, but it is not a failsafe system.