In an article published on September 24, 2015 by the news provider Environmental Health News, journalist Laura Pyle reports on a new study that links prenatal exposure to bisphenol A (BPA, CAS 80-05-7) to low birth weight. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Environment International and conducted by researchers Wenqian Huo and colleagues from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the General Hospital of the Yangtze River Shipping, and the Wuhan Medical and Health Center for Women and Children, in Wuhan, China. The study included 452 mother-infant pairs (113 low birth weight cases and 339 matched controls) enrolled in a health cohort during 2012-14 in Wuhan City, China. The researchers measured BPA concentrations in maternal urine samples collected at delivery and retrieved birth weight data from medical records. They found that mothers of newborns with low birth weight had significantly higher urinary BPA levels than the control mothers. Also, the association between low birth weight and higher BPA levels was more pronounced among female infants than among male infants. The researchers concluded that prenatal exposure to elevated levels of BPA may increase the risk of delivering infants with low birth weight. It was noted that this was the first case-control study to investigate the association in China.
Read more
Laura Pyle (September 24, 2015). “BPA in mothers’ urine linked to low birth weights in China.” Environmental Health News
Reference
Huo, W. et al (2015). “Maternal urinary bisphenol A levels and infant low birth weight: A nested case–control study of the Health Baby Cohort in China.” Environment International 85:96-103.
