Read the full article by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health
“The levels of 45 environmental contaminants were measured in samples from 1 300 mother-child pairs in Greece, Spain, France, Lithuania, UK and Norway, as part of the HELIX Study.
The results from the study show that:
- Most of the contaminants were found in almost all the participants, but less than one per cent of the samples had levels that exceeded current thresholds for increased risk of adverse health effects.
- For mercury and two perfluoroalkyl substances (PFOS and PFOA), many of the participants had concentrations that exceeded the threshold for which a reduction in exposure is recommended.
The level of contaminants in both mothers and children were in the same range as previously reported in studies from Europe and the USA for single compound groups…
‘The best way to reduce exposure to PFOS and PFOA is to prohibit their use. The amount of these contaminants in consumer products, diet and surroundings will eventually diminish,’ explains Line Småstuen Haug, senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and main author of the paper.
‘There is already a global ban against PFOS, and a ban for PFOA is in progress. There is also an international treaty to protect people and the environment from the harmful effects of mercury,’ she continues…
The results highlight the need for frequent and harmonised surveillance to monitor levels of known contaminants and to detect any new ones as early as possible. The Human Biomonitoring Initiative for Europe (HBM4EU) is being established, involving Norway and 27 other countries…
The levels of PCBs and perfluoroalkyl substances in the Norwegian children were among the highest in the study. This may partly be due to the transfer of these substances to breastmilk, and that the Norwegian children in this study were breastfed on average for longer than the other European children. Furthermore, these contaminants are present in fish, and Norwegian children were among those with higher fish consumption. However, Norwegian children had lower levels of other contaminants such as phthalates (in plastic) and parabens (in cosmetics) compared to the other children in this study.
The Norwegian mothers had the highest median levels of some of the phthalates and two of the parabens. In contrast to the children, the levels of PCBs and perfluoroalkyl substances in the Norwegian mothers were not among the highest in this study…
This is the first study to investigate the levels of a wide range of environmental contaminants in mothers and their children by comparing results from harmonised sample collection in six European countries.
The study is part of the Human Early Life Exposome (HELIX) project where Norway is one of six participating countries. It is financed by the EU and is led by Professor Martine Vrijheid from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health in Spain…
The aim of HELIX is to describe environmental exposure in the first years of life (early-life exposome) and study the association with different biomarkers and adverse health effects that affect children. The exposome includes all environmental factors from conception throughout life and can be compared to the role of the genome for our DNA.”