Prenatal exposure to chemical in plastic linked to wheezing in kids
May 2nd, 2011 - 3:20 pm ICT by ANIWashington, May 02 (ANI): A Penn State College of Medicine researcher has indicated that exposure to chemical bisphenol A during early pregnancy may be associated with wheezing in children.
Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a chemical found in many consumer products, including plastic water bottles and food containers. Experimental research suggested that prenatal BPA exposure causes asthma in mice, but no data exists for humans.
Adam Spanier, assistant professor of pediatrics, studied 367 children, 99 percent of whom were born to mothers who had detectable BPA levels in their urine during pregnancy. These parents then reported any incidents of wheezing on a twice-yearly basis for three years.
At six months, the odds of wheezing are twice as high for children with mothers who had higher BPA than those who had mothers with lower BPA levels. However, the effects may have diminished as the children aged.
Higher BPA concentrations in the urine of the pregnant women at 16 weeks were associated with wheezing in their babies. However, concentrations of BPA at 26 weeks or at birth were not associated with wheezing in their children.
“This suggests that there are periods of time during pregnancy when the fetus is more vulnerable,” said Spanier.
“Exposure during early pregnancy may be worse than exposure in later pregnancy,” added Spanier.
The study was reported at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting in Denver. (ANI)
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Tags: annual meeting, assistant professor, asthma, college of medicine, early pregnancy, experimental research, fetus, food containers, medicine researcher, mice, pediatric academic societies, pediatrics, penn state college, penn state college of medicine, plastic water bottles, pregnant women, prenatal exposure, six months, spanier, wheezing in children