Healthbuzz

Moms’ cosmetics linked to sons’ sexual development

by LaVonne on 27/05/05 at 2:17 pm

For the first time, scientists have found evidence that chemicals widely used in cosmetics and plastics and found in pregnant women are adversely affecting genital development in their infant boys.

The findings published by researchers at the University of Minnesota and other institutions could have implications for the chemical industry and for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Both have been under pressure by public health groups to establish voluntary controls or regulations on a family of chemicals called phthalates.

The study used the latest analytical equipment to measure phthalates in the urine of 85 pregnant women. Physicians also looked for specific indications of genital development abnormalities in the boys.

In earlier studies, male rodents exposed to some phthalates showed specific genital abnormalities based on one measurement. The new study found similar associations in humans. Mothers who had up to four types of phthalates in their urine gave birth to boys with genital development problems.

The boys, whose average age was 15 months, had one or more developmental issues, including smaller penises and scrotums or less developed testicles, compared to the boys whose mothers had fewer phthalates in their urine, according to a report in today’s issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.

“We were able to show even with our relatively small sample that phthalate-exposed boys have an increased likelihood of a cluster of genital changes,” said the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Shanna Swan, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Swan said the findings are significant because the concentrations of four phthalates in the mothers’ urine were at levels found in more than one quarter of the female population of the United States based on a recent nationwide sample.
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