Exposure to Flame Retardant Decreases Female Fertility, Study Shows

A study of 223 pregnant women in California has shown that women exposed to high levels of flame retardants take substantially longer to get pregnant, suggesting for the first time that these hormone-disrupting chemicals are linked to reduced fertility. The research, conduced by epidemiologists at the University of California at Berkeley, examined the impact of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, known as PBDEs, which are widely used in furniture cushions, carpet padding, and other household items. Examining pregnant women in California’s Salinas Valley — an agricultural community with predominantly low-income, Mexican immigrants — the researchers found that 97 percent of them had PBDEs in their blood and that those with high levels of the chemical were half as likely to conceive in any given month as those with low levels. Each ten-fold jump of PBDEs in a woman’s blood reduced her odds of getting pregnant by 30 percent, according to the study, posted online in the journal, Environmental Health Perspectives. The women in the study conceived, on average, after three months, although 15 percent of the women took longer than 12 months to conceive. The study suggested that high levels of exposure to flame retardants could push some women and men into a “sub-fertile” category, making it difficult to conceive.