Handling phtalates affects a woman’s fertility

Women working with plasticizers and pesticides may be lowering their fertility and increasing the risk of having a low birth weight baby.

New research published online in Occupational and Enviromental Medicine looked at 6,000 women during the various stages of pregnancy with due dates between 2002 and 2006.

It found women exposed to a substance used to make plastic flexible – phtalates and also pesticides, were more than twice as likely to take six months or more to conceive.

Their babies also had a low birth weight.