William Atkins
Sunday, 23 November 2008 22:38
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 3
A European study reports that the common genetic birth defect hypospadias may occur more frequency when the male baby’s mother is a hairdresser or beauty therapist while pregnant, or is associated with an occupation that involves the use of excessive amounts of hair spray.
The paper “
Endocrine Disruptors in the Workplace, Hair Spray, Folate Supplementation, and Risk of Hypospadias: Case-control Study” (pdf file) is published in the journal
Environmental Health Perspectives.
Its authors studied the risk of hypospadias with the occupational exposure of the mother to the chemical group phthalates and hair spray.
Hyposadias is a congenital birth defect (genetic anomaly) of the urogenital system (specifically, the urethra).
It affects baby boys when the urinary opening (urinary meatus) in the male genitalia is abnormally located anywhere along a line (the urethral groove) on the underside of the penis.
According to the United Press International article “
Hairspray exposure linked to birth defect,” it
“affects about 1 in 250 boys in Britain and the United States.”
Within the abstract to the author’s paper,
“Prevalence estimates in Europe range from 4 to 24 per 10,000 births, depending on definition with higher rates reported from the United States. Relatively little is known about potential risk factors, but a role for endocrine disrupting chemicals has been proposed.”
The researchers studied 471 males with hypospadias and 490 randomly selected male babies born between January 1, 1997 and September 30, 1998, in the southeastern portion of England.
What did the researchers find? Please read on.
