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Important Information Published To Help Pregnant Women Reduce Fetal Exposures

North Haven, Conn., July 11, 2011-- An important brochure, 12 STEPS TO REDUCING FETAL EXPOSURES, is being released today by Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI), a nine-member, non-profit organization composed of doctors, public health professionals and policy experts dedicated to protecting human health from environmental harms.

EHHI created this brochure because the science of fetal exposures has become ever more significant as we learn that many chemicals are capable of crossing the placenta and impacting the fetus. It therefore became extremely important for EHHI to publish a brochure that could help pregnant women decide what kinds of things they might want to avoid.

Hugh Taylor, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences and Chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Yale University School of Medicine, explained, "The human fetus is more vulnerable to environmental insults than adults. The consequences of exposures in the womb are often carried with an individual throughout life. Pregnancy is a unique time when a women can protect the next generation. Avoiding harmful environmental exposures is an essential part of a healthy pregnancy."

It was not so long ago that medical wisdom was that the placenta protected the fetus from the outside world. It was the use of thalidomide during pregnancy and the resulting birth defects that led scientists to understand that certain chemicals did, in fact, cross the placenta and enter the developing fetus. Since that time, in the 1950s and early 1960s, the world has learned more and more about fetal exposures and what they mean for the developing child.

A study by a non-profit organization, The Environmental Working Group, showed that babies are being born with over 200 industrial chemicals in their cord blood at birth. Some of these chemicals are known to be carcinogenic, some are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and others can cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal studies.

Now we know that at the time when organs, vessels, membranes and systems are knit together from single cells, the umbilical cord is carrying chemicals, pollutants and pesticides that cross the placenta as readily as residues from cigarettes and alcohol. This is the human "body burden" -- the pollution in people that permeates everyone, including fetuses in the womb.

At certain stages of growth, neurologic and endocrine systems have demonstrated particular sensitivity to environmental toxicants. These differences in biological susceptibility and exposures in children versus adults support the need for strong consideration of children and fetuses in chemical policies.

What does all this mean? It is hard to know exactly -- but what we do know is that children's health is in trouble. You do not have to look very far to find children with asthma, food allergies, behavioral issues, autism and obesity. There is a strong body of supporting science that suggests that fetal exposures to industrial chemicals are contributing to adverse health effects in the human population -- and this is a real cause for concern.

As examples of children's health issues, consider the rise of a few chronic diseases found in children today.

Asthma
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asthma rates have been rising continually for the past 30 years. For instance, in 1980 one out of every 30 children in the United States had asthma. Fifteen years later, in 1995, it was one out of every 15 children, and fifteen years later in 2010, one out of every 10 children had asthma. This is an astounding rise in disease.

Obesity rates
More than one in six adolescents ages 12 to 19 were overweight in the United States in 2003-2004, more than triple the rate found 25 years earlier. There is emerging science that is beginning to support the notion that endocrine-disrupting chemicals may contribute to the development of childhood obesity. These endocrine-disrupting chemicals interfere with metabolism and normal hormone control and they can be found in food, consumer products and some pesticides.

Allergies
A recent survey published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology revealed that the rate of peanut allergies in children has tripled just over the past decade. In 1997, 0.6 percent of children were allergic to peanuts. If we look at 2008 -- a mere 10 years later -- we find that 2.1 percent of children are allergic to peanuts or tree nuts -- almost three times as many children in just a decade.

Behavioral disorders
Rates of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses increased an average of three percent per year from 1997 to 2006 --- rising to an average of 5.5 percent per year from 2003 to 2007. As of 2007, almost 10 percent of American children aged 4-17 years of age are or have been diagnosed with ADHD.

How have these rises in children's diseases happened?

Nancy Alderman, President of Environment and Human Health, Inc., said, "The rises in these childhood diseases are simply too fast to be the result of genetic changes, and therefore we must look more closely at present-day environmental exposures. With this in mind, EHHI has developed a brochure that is easily accessible and that pregnant women will be able to use as a helpful tool in reducing fetal exposures."

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