Scientists have found that the ubiquitous presence of chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) could soon lead to half of all newborn babies being born with at least one birth defect. A new study links these chemicals to neural tube defects, the first of its kind to examine the effects of such environmental factors on fetal development. Even though POPS have semi-volatile and insoluble characteristics that prevent
them to travel directly through the environment, they have been found to travel
extremely far distances from their original point of release. POPs attach to
particulate matter, and more often than not, through
the food supply. This ultimately leads to POPs traveling all over
the world and contaminating the global food supply. In fact, POPs can travel to
locations where they have never been used, including remote areas as far as
Antarctica.
In the study, researchers observed 80 cases of fetuses or newborns with
neural tube defects as well as 50 healthy controls from rural countries within
the Shanxi Province in the People’s Republic of China. The research team chose
this province due to the fact that it has the highest Polycyclic
Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) emissions in the country, a particularly
dangerous atmospheric pollutant produced mainly from mining and burning coal in
the area. The province also has the highest rates of neural tube
defects in China, most likely a result of these pollutants. The rate of
defect is a staggering 14 per 1,000 births.
What
the scientists found in the placenta tissue of pregnant women added further
evidence to their theory. At birth, the scientists found several types of persistent
organic pollutants in the placenta tissue, in addition to 10 types of
PAHs, multiple types of organochloride pesticides, and 2 types
of the pesticide DDT and a number of DTT metabolites. This
is very distressing because even today, many environmental pollutants despite
being banned many years ago, are still affecting newborn
children in developing and developed nations. As the usage of pesticides and
genetically-enhanced weed killer accelerates, even more pollutants are
unleashed on pregnant women and subsequently their developing fetuses. According
to the authors of the study, these pollutants will lead to 50% of all future
newborns being born with a defect unless something is done to control the
pervasive nature of these harmful pollutants. This should be a wake-up call for
governments to act on this problem.
Posted by: Segpierre Adrian A. Miradora
