Increased exposure among pregnant women to a class of flame-retardant chemicals found in older furniture and other everyday consumer products is linked to lower IQs in their children, UCSF researchers found in a study that is certain to further ignite the debate over the chemicals.
Examining data from nearly 3,000 mother-child pairs from previous studies done around the world, the authors concluded that every tenfold increase in women’s exposure during pregnancy to chemicals known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, was associated with a 3.7-point decrease in their children’s IQ.
The study was published Thursday in Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. It comes a little more than a week after a San Francisco supervisor introduced legislation that would ban all flame-retardant chemicals from furniture, baby strollers and other children’s products sold in the city.
That proposal, an effort to bring down cancer rates and lessen developmental problems in children, was criticized by the chemical industry, which said flame retardants have for decades been instrumental in protecting people and allowing manufacturers to meet tough product-safety standards.
The UCSF study only evaluated exposure to PBDEs, which were phased out from use in new manufacturing since 2004 but remain in used furniture and other products.
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