For years, obstetricians and gynecologists have warned pregnant women to avoid everything from tobacco and caffeine to high heels.
Now, it appears, they will begin alerting them about something else: toxic chemicals in their cosmetics and other products.
As EWG has reported for more than a decade, many chemicals found in personal care products have the potential to hinder people’s ability to reproduce, to interfere with pregnancies and to cause birth defects.
And recently, citing scientific evidence accumulated over the last 15 years, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine have urged doctors to warn their patients that exposure to toxic chemicals before conception and during pregnancy can have significant and long-lasting effects on reproductive health.
The medical groups’ conclusions align with EWG’s research, which has determined that reproductive health problems linked to toxic chemicals in cosmetics and other personal care products include:
- Infertility
- Low birth weight
- Preterm birth
- Cancers
- Birth defects…Read more