Health

Common PFC Chemicals May Impact Fertility

by Terri Potratz | January 29, 2009 at 10:54 am

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A new study suggests that common household chemicals may affect fertility in women, and are possibly delaying the time it takes to get pregnant by over 12 months. These chemicals, called PFCs, are found in clothing, carpets, nonstick cookware and food packaging.

In the study, the higher the concentrations of these chemicals -- called perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) -- in the women's blood samples, the more likely the women were to take more than 12 months to get pregnant.

"In our study, 75% of the women had concentrations that were associated with a longer waiting time [to pregnancy]," says study researcher Jorn Olsen, MD, PhD, professor and chair of epidemiology at the University of California School of Public Health. Olsen heads the Danish National Birth Cohort at the University of Aarhus in Denmark.

The study shows a correlation between the chemicals and infertility, but does not necessarily prove a causal relationship. Researchers suspect that the chemicals may affect fertility by disrupting a woman's menstrual cycle.

The Environmental Protection Agency targeted PFOAs (perflourooctanoic acid, a type of PFC) in 2006 in an effort to significantly decrease its use after finding it in low levels within the environment and human populations. PFOAs are toxic carcinogens that have caused developmental disorders and birth defects in animals.

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