October 1, 2019

expert reaction to conference abstract looking at pregnant women’s exposure to bisphenol A and lung function in children

A presentation, given at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress, reports on links between the exposure of pregnant women to bisphenol A and decreased lung function in their children after birth.

Dr Rod Mitchell, Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist, Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh, and Research Group Leader, MRC Centre for Reproductive Health, University of Edinburgh, said:

“Whilst the potential impacts of in-utero environmental exposures and future health are an important subject for scientific research, from the limited information presented in the abstract it is not possible to fully determine the validity of the experimental approach or the findings.  In particular, this conference abstract does not demonstrate whether the reported association is statistically significant or could simply be due to chance.  As a result, robust peer-review of the entire study is required before any conclusions can be made.”

* Abstract title: ‘Prenatal exposure to phenols and lung function, wheeze, and asthma in school-age children from 8 European birth cohorts’ by Alicia Abellan et al.

This is a conference abstract from the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Madrid, and is under embargo until 14:30 UK time on Tuesday 1 October 2019.

There is no paper as this is not published work.

Declared interests

Dr Rod Mitchell: Dr Mitchell leads a research group that investigates the effects of in-utero exposures on reproductive development and fertility.