ScienceDaily: ALL Pregnant Women Tested Show Pesticides in Placenta

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Misty L. Trepke

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070514104811.htm

 

All Pregnant Women Tested Had At Least One Kind Of Pesticide In

Their Placenta, According To Researcher

 

Science Daily — Human beings are directly responsible for more than

110,000 chemical substances which have been generated since the

Industrial Revolution. Every year, we " invent " more than 2,000 new

substances, most of them contaminants, which are emitted into the

environment and which are consequently present in food, air, soil

and water. Nonetheless, human beings are also victims of these

emissions, and involuntarily (what is known in this scientific field

as " inadvertent exposure " ). Every day humans ingest many of these

substances which cannot be assimilated by our body, and are

accumulated in the fatty parts of our tissues.

 

This is especially worrying for pregnant women. During the gestation

period, all the contaminants accumulated in the organism have direct

access to the microenvironment where the embryo/foetus develops. The

doctoral thesis " Maternal-child exposure via the placenta to

environmental chemical substances with hormonal activity " , written

by María José López Espinosa, from the Department of Radiology and

Physical Medicine of the University of Granada, analyzes the

presence of organochlorine pesticides –normally used as pesticides-

in the organisms of pregnant women. The analysis was developed at

San Cecilio University Hospital , in Granada, with 308 women who had

given birth to healthy children between 2000 and 2002. The results

are alarming: 100% of these pregnant women had at least one

pesticide in their placenta, but the average rate amounts to eight

different kinds of chemical substances.

 

Fifteen different pesticides in the organisms of pregnant women

 

In her study, through the analysis of the placentas, López studied

the presence of 17 endocrine disruptive organochlorine pesticides

(i.e., pesticides which interfere with the proper performance of the

hormonal system). The results showed that the most frequent

pesticides present in the placenta tissue are DDE (92.7%), lindane

(74.8%), endosulfan diol (62.1%) y endosulfan-I (54.2%). Among

these, the most prevalent was endosulfan-diol, with an average

concentration of 4.15 nanograms per gram of placenta (156.73 ng/g

lipid). Surprisingly, the UGR researcher discovered that some

patients' placentas contained 15 of the 17 pesticides analyzed.

 

A total of 668 samples from pregnant women were used in this study,

which was approved by the Ethical Commission of San Cecilio

University Hospital . Mothers were informed of the study's goals

before giving their express consent.

 

Thanks to gynaecologists, the nurses and the midwives who

participated in the study, biological samples were extracted from

the blood, the umbilical cord and the placenta during childbirth.

The following day, an epidemiological survey was carried out by

trained survey statisticians. The survey contained questions on the

general data of the parents, their places of residence, profession,

medical history, anthropometric information, age, tobacco habits,

lifestyle and diet during pregnancy, among other factors.

 

The study made at the UGR has facilitated research into the

association of the characteristics of parents, newborn babies and

childbirth with exposure to pesticides found in the mothers'

placenta. Among the aspects associated with a higher presence of

pesticides we find an older age, higher body mass index, less weight

gained during pregnancy, lower educational level, higher workplace

exposure, first-time motherhood and lower weight in babies.

 

" Serious effects on the baby "

 

According to María José López, " we do not really know the

consequences of exposure to disruptive pesticides in children, but

we can predict that they may have serious effects, since this

placenta exposure occurs at key moments of the embryo's development " .

 

The research group to which María José López belongs, directed by

Prof. Nicolás Olea Serrano, has conducted several studies which

associate exposure to pesticides with neonatal malformations if the

genito-urinary system, such as cryptorchidism (undropped testicles)

and hypospadias (total fusion of the urethral folds).

 

The UGR researcher underlines the fact that, in spite

of " inadvertent exposure " , " it is possible to control pesticide

ingestion by means of a proper diet, which should be healthy and

balanced, through consumption of food whose chemical content is low.

Moreover, daily exercise and the avoidance of tobacco (which could

also be a source of inadvertent exposure) are very important habits

which help to control the presence of pesticides in our organisms.

 

The UGR researcher's work is framed within the objectives

established in the research project " Increasing incidence of human

male reproductive health disorders in relation to environmental

effects on growth-and sex steroid-induced alterations in programmed

development " (Environmental Reproductive Health), directed and

carried out by a multidisciplinary group of clinicians, basic

researchers and epidemiologists at several institutions from

countries such as Denmark, Finland or England and financed by the

European Union (QLK4-1999-01422).

 

Reference: María José López Espinosa. Department of Radiology and

Physical Medicine of the Universidad de Granada