A new scientific discovery has put common hair and skin products under the microscope, and pregnant women won’t like what it shows.
Researchers from Atlanta-based Emory University, Northeastern University and University of Michigan published a study in Environmental Health Perspectives highlighting the potential risks of two chemicals: phenols and parabens.
“Our findings show that these chemicals found in consumer products are associated with really adverse pregnancy outcomes and that higher levels of these chemicals can lead to gestational hypertension, and ultimately to women delivering their babies early and at lower birth weight,” senior author Stephanie Eick, PhD, an assistant professor in the departments of environmental health and epidemiology at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health, said in a news release.
The chemicals are often found in body lotions with UV filters, hand soaps, shampoos, sunscreens and some cosmetics. By increasing a pregnant woman’s susceptibility to high blood pressure, the chemicals put the long-term health of both the mother and baby at risk.
According to Emory, high blood pressure during pregnancy can restrict fetal growth and cause maternal complications like preeclampsia or stroke.
“But these risk factors are potentially modifiable by limiting exposure to these chemicals, which we found have a stronger effect when people are exposure (sic) to multiple types of these chemical (sic) together,” Eick said. “This reinforces why it would be beneficial, in terms of public health, for similar chemicals to be regulated as a class instead of separately. Because in reality, we are all exposed to many things at once and we just need to try our best to limit our exposure as much as possible.”
According to the university, Eick and his team’s study is the largest of its kind to date.
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