Two Studies Link Phthalates to Premature Birth, Low Birth Weight
A recent study has reportedly claimed that mothers of premature babies “have, on average, up to three times the phthalate level in their urine compared to women who carry to term.” John Meeker, et al., “Urinary Phthalate Metabolites in Relation to Preterm Birth in Mexico City,” Environmental Health Perspectives, June 16, 2009. Collaborating with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health (UM SPH) analyzed urine samples taken during the third trimester, finding that 30 women who delivered before 37 weeks gestation had “significantly higher phthalate levels”
than 30 women experiencing full-term pregnancies and women in a control group. “We looked at these commonly used compounds found in consumer products based on the growing amount of animal toxicity data and since the national human data show that a large proportion of the population are unknowingly exposed,” stated the lead author in a July 6, 2009, UM SPH press release. “One of the problems for consumers is that you don’t know exactly which products contain phthalates because the products do not have to be labeled accordingly.” See FoodProductionDaily.com, July 8, 2009.
Meanwhile, a separate study has apparently found a correlation between higher phthalate levels and low birth weight (LBW). Yunhui Zhang, et al., “Phthalate Levels and Low Birth Weight: A Nested Case-control Study of Chinese Newborns,” The Journal of Pediatrics, June 25, 2009. Chinese researchers examined maternal blood, cord blood and meconium specimens from 201 newborn-mother pairs, including 88 low birth weight (LBW) infants. “More than 70 percent of the bio-samples had quantifiable levels of phthalates, with higher levels in the LBW infants compared to the controls,” according to the study, which also claimed that “prenatal di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) exposure was
associated with LBW, and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) was negatively associated with birth length.” See FoodProductionDaily.com, June 29, 2009.
