Contaminants cause children to grow slowly

A study showed that Russian children living in high-contaminant environments are of smaller stature than their peers in a healthy environment.

According to Reuters , after tracking nearly 500 boys over a three-year period, a group of international researchers investigating in Russia found that children in the blood had biphenyl chloride (PCB) content. Both are lower than those with low PCN levels, an average of 3 cm despite living in the same geographical area.

Children have a much higher rate of PCBs in their blood than other children.

Not only the height but also the body mass index (abbreviated BMI - determining the correlation between weight and height) are also affected. This index of children exposed to PCBs is also 2 units lower than friends.

' The phenomenon of growth due to PCBs also has the same manifestations when children are exposed to dioxin or other chemicals, ' said Jane Burns, a member of the team, from the Harvard University School of Public Health.

She said that the boys in the study area were infected with these substances more than the American population in general because they were next to chemical plants, generating dioxin as a byproduct.

PCBs were previously used in many household appliances, ranging from eating utensils (dishes), lighting to insulation and household chemicals (cosmetics, antiseptics, detergents). In the 1970s, they were banned because of potential health dangers that still exist everywhere because they have accumulated quite a lot in the environment, in fish fat, animal fat, and poultry.

Research shows that there is an association between PCB content and high rate of cancer, type 2 diabetes and other diseases. Taiwanese children from PCBs infected fetuses from oil contaminated with impurities are also shorter than friends of the same age.

Dioxin is a poison that forms when organic substances are burned in forest fires as well as from factory waste incinerators. From the air it is absorbed by trees, soil and water, into the food chain (vegetables, fish, meat). Dioxin exposure also leads to cancer and changes the rate of male / female births (many women, few men).

Continuing to study the effects of PCB and dioxin exposure on development, Burns and colleagues took blood samples of 499 8- and 9-year-old boys in Chapae area, considered to be heavily polluted. She said that their PCB and dioxin levels far exceeded the corresponding levels of American children.

Prenatal PCB exposure involves infant weight. Along with differences in height and weight at prepubescent age, the authors also said that they were infected with PCBs every year less than 0.3 cm in unexposed children in 3 years. immediately.

It is still unclear how PCBs and dioxins affect the great process of children. Burns said in an interview: ' We also assume a mechanism but not very sure. It is dioxin that interferes with the gene regulating growth, while PCB disturbs the activity of thyroid hormones that govern maturity . '

These findings were published in Pediatrics (Pediatrics).