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EDCs increase the risk of delayed speech development
Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have long been associated with a wide range of health risks, but new research has identified a link between exposure to EDC mixtures and delayed neurodevelopmental disorders and speech development in children.
Carried out using data provided by the Swedish Environmental Longitudinal, Mother and child, Asthma and allergy (SELMA) pregnancy cohort, the review brought together epidemiological data with experimental toxicology to look for associations between exposure to EDC mixtures and neurodevelopmental disorders in the infants of the mothers in the cohort.
The epidemiological study by SELMA gathered data on EDCs detected in urine, blood and other clinical variables in 2000 women.
The experimental methodologies used were in vitro and in vivo models, established experimental methods used to build understanding of what happens to extracted cells in a tightly controlled, laboratory setting when they are altered or disrupted.
The results of the epidemiological study were combined with the experimental evidence to look for any correlations between adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes.
The combined analysis found “increased odds” of language delay in the children of up to 54% of the women who had prenatal exposures to EDCs at levels identified as being of concern. It also reported the risk of language delay was 3.3 times higher at the upper end of exposures compared to the lowest.
