New flooring in the living environment of pregnant women significantly
increases the risk of infants to suffer from respiratory diseases in
their first year of life. This is the result of a study carried out by
the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the "St Georg"
Municipal Hospital, which demonstrates that exposure to volatile
organic compounds in the months before and after birth induces breathing
problems in early childhood . The scientists therefore recommend that
redecoration should be avoided during pregnancy or in the first year of
children's life. According to an article written by the scientists in
the scientific journal Environment International this could
prevent at a rough estimate around 20,000 cases per year of wheezing
requiring medical treatment in infants in Germany alone.
The observed health risks are caused by increased concentrations of
volatile organic compounds (in short: VOCs), such as styrene or
ethylbenzene, which escape from new flooring and are then absorbed
through the respiratory air. "We therefore do not recommend that
laminate, carpet or floor coverings be laid in the homes of pregnant
women. Although the concentrations of these volatile chemicals are lower
if no adhesive is used when installing the flooring, even then the
concentrations are still high enough to significantly increase the risk
of infants suffering from respiratory complaints in their first few
months," explains Dr. Ulrich Franck from the UFZ. Thereby, in particular
those children whose mother or father have already suffered from
asthma, hay fever or other allergic diseases are affected with an up to
fivefold increased risk for airway diseases.
Earlier studies from Leipzig had already shown that chemicals from
home renovations lead to changes in the immune system of new-born
children. "For example, we could determine an enhanced type 2 immune
response in the cord blood of children whose mothers were exposed during
pregnancy, which plays an important role in the development of allergic
reactions.
The design of our long-term study with a comprehensive evaluation of
environmental exposure before and after birth offers us a unique
opportunity to study effects of this exposure on children's diseases.
According to our results, exposure to these volatile chemical compounds
seems to be more critical in pregnancy than in the first year of a
child's life," concludes Dr. Irina Lehmann from the UFZ, who is in
charge of the LINA study on lifestyle and environmental factors and
their influence on the risk of allergies in newborn babies. An analysis
of the data showed that renovations after the birth of a child had a
much lower impact on respiratory problems than during pregnancy. Hence,
the recommendation to wait to lay new flooring until well after the
birth.
The investigations were carried out as part of the LINA study, which
monitors mother-child pairs since pregnancy in order to investigate the
effect of environmental influences and lifestyle habits on health and
well-being of the child. The LINA study includes both regular
questionnaires and pollutant measurements in their homes and environment
as well as laboratory tests and medical examinations. The recently
published study refers to data from a total of 465 mother-child-pairs
living in Leipzig.
About two-thirds of the families carried out renovations during the
pregnancy and every sixth of them additionally replaced the flooring.
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