July 12 (UPI) -- Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found that stress can worsen the effects on an unborn baby from toxic chemical exposure in pregnancy.
The study, published July 12 in PLOS ONE, found that a pregnant woman under stress is more likely to have a low birth weight baby compared to a non-stressed pregnant woman, even when both were exposed to the same toxic chemicals.
Stress was measured by such factors as socioeconomic status or years of paternal education.
"It appears that stress may amplify the health effects of toxic chemical exposure, which means that for some people, toxic chemicals become more toxic," Tracey Woodruff, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco, who also collaborated on the study, said in a press release.
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Researchers found that high-stress pregnant women who smoked were twice as likely to have a low birth weight baby as low-stress pregnant smokers.
The study also that stress heightened the effects of air pollution on low birth weight and exposure to ambient fine particulate matter increased the risk of African-American women having low birth weight babies compared to white women.
"While the evidence on the combined effects of chemicals and stress is new and emerging, it is clearly suggestive of an important question of social justice," Rachel Morello-Frosch, a professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management and the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley, said.
"The bottom line is that poverty-related stress may make people more susceptible to the negative effects of environmental health hazards, and that needs to be a consideration for policymakers and regulators."
The study consisted of 17 human and 22 animal studies examining the association between chemical exposure, stress and fetal development.
