Exposure to chemicals increased in pregnant women in the last decade

Exposure to chemicals increased in pregnant women in the last decade, study suggests. Pregnant women's exposures to chemicals increased considerably in the last decade, according to a recently published study. Study: Exposure to Contemporary and Emerging Chemicals in Commerce among Pregnant Women in the United States: The Environmental influences on Child Health Outcome (ECHO) Program John Meeker is one of the study co-authors and a professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He says the study also shows that Hispanic women and other women of color and those of lower socioeconomic status and education had higher concentrations of multiple pesticides and parabens "consistent with prior evidence that chemical exposures are frequently higher among women of color.” The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in Environmental Science & Technology, was led by the University of California San Francisco. The researchers used urine samples of women who are part of the NIH's Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program to look at their exposure to more than 100 chemicals listed in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), including pesticides, chemicals from plastics and newer chemicals that have been introduced to replace chemicals considered dangerous. Meeker, a U-M professor of environmental health sciences and global public health, discusses the study. What's the importance of this paper?