The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is deciding whether or not the use of common antibacterial compounds should be better regulated due to their potentially harmful effect on pregnant women and their unborn babies.
Researchers will present their findings on the harmful effects of the compounds at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
"We looked at the exposure of pregnant women and their fetuses to triclosan and triclocarban, two of the most commonly used germ-killers in soaps and other everyday products," Benny Pycke, Ph.D said. "We found triclosan in all of the urine samples from the pregnant women that we screened. We also detected it in about half of the umbilical cord blood samples we took, which means it transfers to fetuses. Triclocarban was also in many of the samples."
Recent research suggests exposure to antibacterial compounds can lead to developmental and reproductive problems in animals, and most likely in humans as well. Use of these compounds could also lead to antibiotic resistance, which is a major health concern. The body can flush the compounds, called triclosan and triclocarban, but they can have negative effects if a person is consistently exposed.
"If you cut off the source of exposure, eventually triclosan and triclocarban would quickly be diluted out, but the truth is that we have universal use of these chemicals, and therefore also universal exposure," said Rolf Halden, Ph.D., the lead investigator of the study at ASU.
Laura Geer, Ph.D., of the State University of New York also found a link betweenantimicrobial, butyl paraben, (which is commonly used in cosmetics) and shorter newborn lengths.
The compounds are used in over 2,000 everyday products marketed as antimicrobial such as "toothpastes, soaps, detergents, carpets, paints, school supplies and toys." Minnesota is now the first state to have banned triclosan, which will go into effect in January 2017.
