A new survey found very few obstetricians counsel pregnant patients on the dangers of environmental toxins and how to avoid them.
Only one in every five of the 2,500 physicians surveyed routinely asked about these exposures, a University of California - San Francisco news release reported. Only one in 15 had been properly trained on the harmful reproductive consequences associated with toxic chemicals. Many of these doctors said they did not counsel their patients on the subject because they were uncertain about the evidence of the chemical's effects or did not have enough information. Many of these physicians also did not want to scare their patients, because many of these chemicals are almost unavoidable both at home or in the workplace.
"Many environmental exposures are unavoidable," Naomi Stotland, MD, an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at UCSF, a physician at one of UCSF's partner hospitals, San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, and the study's lead author, said in the news release. "So, we counsel women on the substances that we know are most likely to cause harm, while providing them with practical ways of reducing their exposures."
The researchers suggested that if physicians were better trained on the subject of toxic chemicals they could be more proactive without worrying about scaring their patients. Previous studies have shown that most pregnant women want to know about the health and reproductive risks associated with common chemicals.
"We have good scientific evidence demonstrating that pregnant women are exposed to toxic chemicals, and there's a link between these exposures and adverse health outcomes in children," Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, who directs the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at UCSF and is the study's senior author, said in the news release. "But physicians are not offering this information to their patients."
Few common chemicals have been tested to determine their effects on pregnant women and children.
"The remedy goes beyond improving physician knowledge and patient counseling about environmental chemicals," Jeanne Conry, MD, PhD, of Kaiser Permanente, who is the immediate past president of ACOG and also a co-author of the study, said in the news release. "We don't know where the most harmful chemicals are used, how we are exposed to them or what the health risks from these exposures might be. We need to leverage the voice of health professionals in policy arenas, as well, to shift the burden of proof about a chemical's safety or toxicity to the manufacturers."
