Chemicals in your living room cause diabetes

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-11/uoc--ciy110920.php

 

News Release 10-Nov-2020
Mice develop diabetes after exposure through mothers
University of California - Riverside

 

A new UC Riverside study shows flame retardants found in nearly every American home cause mice to give birth to offspring that become diabetic.

These flame retardants, called PBDEs, have been associated with diabetes in adult humans. This study demonstrates that PBDEs cause diabetes in mice only exposed to the chemical through their mothers.

"The mice received PBDEs from their mothers while they were in the womb and as young babies through mother's milk," said Elena Kozlova, lead study author and UC Riverside neuroscience doctoral student. "Remarkably, in adulthood, long after the exposure to the chemicals, the female offspring developed diabetes."

Results of the study have been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

PBDEs are common household chemicals added to furniture, upholstery, and electronics to prevent fires. They get released into the air people breathe at home, in their cars, and in airplanes because their chemical bond to surfaces is weak.

"PBDEs are everywhere in the home. They're impossible to completely avoid," said UCR neuroscientist and corresponding author of the study, Dr. Margarita Curras-Collazo.

"Even though the most harmful PBDEs have been banned from production and import into the U.S., inadequate recycling of products that contain them has continued to leach PBDEs into water, soil, and air. As a result, researchers continue to find them in human blood, fat, fetal tissues, as well as maternal breast milk in countries worldwide."


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