Scientists at the University of California at San Francisco detected 109 chemicals in a study of pregnant women, including 55 chemicals never before reported in people and 42 “mysterious chemicals” whose sources and uses are unknown.
The chemicals probably come from consumer products or other industrial sources. They have been found in both the blood of pregnant women and their newborn children, suggesting that they are traveling through the mother’s placenta.
The study was published on March 16, 2021, in Environmental Science and Technology.
“These chemicals have probably been in people for some time, but our technology is now helping us to identify more of them,” said Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCSF.
A former scientist with the US Environmental Protection Agency, Woodruff directs the Reproductive Health and Environment Program (PRHE) and the Center for Environmental Research and Translation for Health (EaRTH), both at UCSF.
“It is alarming that we continue to see certain chemicals travel from pregnant women to their children, which means that these chemicals can be with us for generations,” she said.
The scientific team used high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) to identify human-made chemicals in people.
But while these chemicals can be provisionally identified using chemical libraries, they need to be confirmed by comparing them to pure chemicals produced by manufacturers that are known as “analytical standards”. And manufacturers don’t always make them available.
Recently, for example, chemical manufacturer Solvay has stopped providing access to a chemical standard for a perfluorooctanoic product acid (PFAS) compound that emerged as a substitute for the eliminated PFAS compounds. Researchers have used this chemical standard to assess the presence and toxicity of the replacement PFAS.
“These new technologies are promising to allow us to identify more chemicals in people, but the results of our study also make it clear that chemical manufacturers need to provide analytical standards so that we can confirm the presence of chemicals and assess their toxicity,” said co-lead author Dimitri Panagopoulos Abrahamsson, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow with PRHE from UCSF.
The 109 chemical researchers found in the blood samples of pregnant women and their newborns are found in many different types of products. For example, 40 are used as plasticizers, 28 in cosmetics, 25 in consumer products, 29 as pharmaceuticals, 23 as pesticides, three as flame retardants and seven are PFAS compounds, which are used in carpets, upholstery and other applications. The researchers say it is possible that there are also other uses for all of these chemicals.
The researchers report that 55 of the 109 chemicals they have provisionally identified appear to have not been reported previously in people:
- 1 is used as a pesticide (bis (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidini-4-y) decanedioate)
- 2 are PFASs (methyl perfluoroundecanoate, most likely used in the manufacture of non-stick cooking utensils and impervious fabrics; 2-perfluorodecyl ethanoic acid)
- 10 are used as plasticizers (eg Sumilizer GA 80 – used in food packaging, paper plates, small appliances)
- 2 are used in cosmetics
- 4 are high-volume chemical products (HPV)
- 37 have little or no information about their sources or uses (for example, 1- (1-acetyl-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-4-yl) -3-dodecylpyrrolidine-2,5-dione, used in manufacturing fragrances and paints – this chemical is so little known that there is currently no acronym – e (2R0-7-hydroxy-8- (2-hydroxyethyl) -5-methoxy-2-, 3-dihydrochromen-4-one (acronym: LL -D-253alpha), for which it is not limited to any information about its uses or sources
“It is very worrying that we cannot identify the uses or sources of so many of these chemicals,” said Woodruff. “The EPA must do a better job of requiring the chemical industry to standardize its reports on chemical compounds and uses. And they need to use their authority to ensure that we have adequate information to assess possible damage to health and remove chemicals from the market that pose a risk. ”
Reference: “Screening Suspects, Prioritizing and Confirming Environmental Chemicals in Maternal-Newborn Pairs in San Francisco” by Aolin Wang, Dimitri Panagopoulos Abrahamsson, Ting Jiang, Miaomiao Wang, Rachel Morello-Frosch, June-Soo Park, Marina Sirota and Tracey J. Woodruff, March 16, 2021 ,, Environmental Science and Technology.
DOI: 10.1021 / acs.est.0c05984
Authors: Joining Woodruff and Panagopoulos Abrahamsson in the study were Aolin Wang and Marina Sirota, from UCSF; Ting Jiang, Miamiao Wang and June-Soo Park, of the California Environmental Protection Agency; and Rachel Morello-Frosch of UC Berkeley.
Funding: This study was funded by NIH / NIEHS grant numbers P30-870 ES030284, UG3OD023272, UH3OD023272, P01ES022841, 871 R01ES027051 and the US EPA grant number 872 RD83543301.