Plastic chemicals causing premature births – study

Paris – One in 10 premature births in the US have been linked to pregnant women being exposed to chemicals in extremely common plastic products, a large study said yesterday.

The chemicals, called phthalates, are used to soften plastic and can be found in thousands of consumer items, including plastic containers and wrapping, beauty care products and toys.

Phthalates have been known for decades to be “hormone disruptors” which affect a person’s endocrine system and have been previously linked to obesity, heart disease, some cancers and fertility problems.

Because they affect hormones, these chemicals “can precipitate early labour and early birth”, lead study author Leonardo Trasande of New York University’s Langone Health Centre told AFP.

By analysing the level of phthalates in the urine of more than 5 000 pregnant women in the US, the researchers were able to examine how exposure to the chemicals could have affected how early the babies were born.

The 10% of mothers with the highest levels of phthalates had a 50% increased risk of giving birth before week 37, compared to the lowest 10%, according to the study in The Lancet Planetary Health.

The researchers said nearly 56 600 preterm births could have linked to phthalate exposure in 2018 alone, roughly 10% of the country’s premature births that year.

Babies born prematurely or at a lower weight tend to have more health problems later in life.

The researchers estimated the resulting medical and social costs of phthalate exposure for preterm births in the US was between $1.6 billion (about R30 billion) and $8.1 billion.

While the study was carried out in the US, Trasande said phthalates were so ubiquitous that five to 10% of early births in most other countries could probably be linked to the chemicals.

Trasande said the benefits of plastic to society need to be weighed against its harms, calling for a global treaty to dramatically reduce plastic production.

As awareness has grown about the potential threat posed by the common phthalate DEHP, some companies have tried replacing it with other compounds. “What was even more frightening [about the new study] was that these replacement phthalates were associated with even stronger effects than DEHP,” Trasande said.

To avoid exposure, Stephanie Eick, a reproductive health researcher at the University of California – who was not involved in the study, advised people to eat less food wrapped in plastic and avoid personal care products that contain phthalates.

Trasande warned that putting plastic containers in microwaves or dishwashers can bring out phthalates, allowing them to later absorb into food. –