Wednesday 6 July 2022 08:39 PM Exposure to dangerous chemicals before birth increases risk of developing liver ... trends now
Unborn children that are exposed to dangerous chemicals - many of which are frequent in day-to-day life - are at an increased risk of developing liver disease, a new study finds.
Researchers from Mount Sinai, in New York City, and the University of Southern California found that many of the chemicals an expecting mother may regualrly interact with.
There is growing research showing that many chemicals people around the world are often exposed to carry more dangers than previously believed.
The ground breaking research is the first to tie this kind of pre-birth exposure specifically to conditions like liver cancer and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children.
Researchers gathered levels of 45 chemicals from expecting mothers to see how much they had been exposed to pollutants in day-to-day life
After following up with the monther's children years later, they found clear correlation between chemical exposure and risk of developing liver disease later in life
'These findings can inform more efficient early-life prevention and intervention strategies to address the current non-alcoholic fatty liver disease epidemic,' Dr Vishal Midya, first author of the study and researcher from Mount Sinai, said in a statement.
Researchers, who published their findings Wednesday in JAMA Network Open, gathered data from 1,108 mothers and their children from 2003 to 2010.
First, mothers had their blood or urine measured while they were pregnant in an effort to test their levels of 45 chemicals.
They were then followed up with years later, where when the child was between the ages of six and 11 years old they had their blood levels measured for cytokeratin-18 and other enzymes that often correlate with liver diseases.
