Metal mixtures in cord blood linked with reduced birth size
Mixtures of toxic metals in umbilical cord blood were associated with reduced birth size, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The study, which was published May 14, 2021, in Environmental Health Perspectives, analyzed data from a group of more than 1,000 pregnant women in Bangladesh who had been exposed to metals from multiple sources. The researchers looked the birth weight, birth length, and head circumference of the women’s newborns, and also measured the amounts of several metals arsenic, cadmium, manganese, and lead in umbilical cords. They found that higher levels of metal mixtures in the umbilical cords were significantly linked with smaller birth size.
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The chemical in question is glyphosate which used in herbicides such as Roundup.
“We found that women that had detectable levels of glyphosate and its environmental breakdown product AMPA (aminomethylphosphonic acid) in their urine around the 26th week of pregnancy had an increased risk for preterm births,” said Monica Silver, lead author of the study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
If glyphosate was found, the women ran a 35% increased chance of a preterm birth.
“And women who had exposures to the breakdown product, AMPA, had an even higher 67% increased risk of preterm birth, Silver said.
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A new study examining antibiotic-resistant bacterial contamination in retail meat samples indicate that how the meat is produced matters. But how the meat is processed also matters.
The study, published last week in
Environmental Health Perspectives, found that retail meat samples from producers certified as organic by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) had a significantly lower prevalence of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) than meat raised conventionally.
In addition, the study also found that retail meat processed at facilities that handle both organic and conventional meat known as split facilities had a lower prevalence of overall bacterial contamination than meat processed at facilities that exclusively handle conventionally raised meat, regardless of how the meat was produced.
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Nearly a quarter of pregnant women say they ve been around secondhand smoke - in their homes, at work, around a friend or relative - which, according to new research, is linked to epigenetic changes - meaning changes to how genes are regulated rather than changes to the genetic code itself - in babies that could raise the risk of developmental disorders and cancer.
The study, published today in
Environmental Health Perspectives by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, is the first to connect secondhand smoke during pregnancy with epigenetic modifications to disease-related genes, measured at birth, which supports the idea that many adult diseases have their origins in environmental exposures - such as stress, poor nutrition, pollution or toba