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DDE and PCB Exposure Could Affect Body Size at Puberty
 We all realize
that exposure to dangerous chemicals and pesticides can have a very bad impact on the human system. But what NIEHS has found out in its recent research is something that is more alarming and concern rising.
A study conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
(NIEHS) has shown that a lady’s exposure to DDE -a product of DDT- and PCB -a liquid electric insulator, now banned worldwide- may have a telling effect on the body size of her children at puberty.
The study results were drawn after following up teenage children who were born to mothers whose DDE and PCB levels in blood and milk were tested by NIEHS in a North Carolina Infant Feeding Study when they were pregnant, between 1978 and 1982.
According to the observations made by the research team, height of the boys at puberty, in proportion to their weights, increased with higher doses of prenatal DDE exposure. In the case of girls, on the other hand, higher prenatal PCB exposure contributed to higher weights in proportion to their heights. The study team further notes that the latter case is true only for whites and has not observed in any other races.
The study further notes that it is impossible for one to have virtually no trace of DDE or PCB in his/her blood for these chemicals are present in our atmospheres in small traces at least. As a result, the research team collected blood and milk samples from the mothers just before and in regular intervals after birth for determining the possible exposure of the child to these chemicals.
The research team members however admit that a clear picture of how DDE and PCBs induces hormonal changes is unknown to the scientific world as of now. What all experts now know at this point is that DDE and PCB are hormonally active chemicals and they could influence the hormone production levels in the human body sizably. The team further adds that hopefully the many laboratory works going on in US and in other parts of the globe could answer this issue in the near future.
The study also observed that the adverse effects of DDE and PCB is related only to prenatal exposure and no such side effects were reported owing to breast feeding or is there any variation in the ages in which puberty sets in. Out of 850 people participated in the North Carolina Infant Feeding Study, 594 families took part in this puberty study as well.
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