BEFORE we are even born, our bodies may be riddled with pollution. More chemicals from everyday household products cross the placenta from mother to baby than we ever imagined.
Pieter Sauer and colleagues at the University Hospital Groningen in the Netherlands analysed 42 maternal blood samples and 27 samples of blood taken from the umbilical cord. For the first time, they found chemicals used as antibacterial agents, flame-retardants and detergents in umbilical-cord blood. Traces of pesticides, artificial musks and plasticisers also appeared.
Concentrations of the antibacterial agent triclosan were higher in cord blood than in maternal blood, while maternal and…
