Babies living as refugees have some of the same social skills as children with more secure home conditions. This is shown by a new study that researchers from Uppsala University have conducted in cooperation with colleagues in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Bhutan. Over 800 children participated in the study, making it one of the largest infant studies ever conducted using eye movement measurements.

We were surprised by the results. Previous research has shown – and we ourselves assumed- that the early infancy period is extremely vulnerable. That children’s development is influenced by the social, security and economic conditions in which they spend their early years. However, we saw in our study that children living in insecurity are not doomed. Some important social skills are intact. This inspires hope, though it doesn’t mean everything is all right.” 

Gustaf Gredebäck, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University

The study was conducted in Bhutan, Sweden, Uganda and Zimbabwe, and involved researchers in peace and conflict studies, game design and psychology. Between 100 and 300 children in each country participated in the study. It shows that regardless of poverty, traumatic experiences in the family, experiences of hunger, war and deep depression in parents, babies are equally good at following social cues.

To obtain a picture of the child’s background and circumstances, the researchers interviewed the child’s parents. They were asked to talk about their experiences of trauma and how they were feeling, and their response was used as an indicator of the parents’ wellbeing status and of their available resources to be a good enough parent.

Internationally established concepts

In all the countries, both children living in secure conditions with parents who were well and children living in troubled conditions with parents who were not well were studied. Trauma from war was only present in children in Uganda, but poverty was present in families in many countries and depression was present in all the countries. The definition of traumatic events and poverty was based on established internationally validated scales and local differences.

The questions in the forms were put to the participants by a local research assistant who could explain and contextualise the question. It was often mental wellbeing issues that needed to be related to different concepts and patterns of thought in different countries. For poverty, country-specific indicators were used.

Eye movement measurements

To measure the children’s social activity and ability to follow what was happening around them, the researchers used eye movement measurements, filming children’s eyes and using an algorithm to calculate where the child was looking. In this way, it is possible to measure the extent to which a child follows the direction in which someone else is looking, i.e. what they are interested in and how they read what others are interested in. The children are involved in a process of sharing attention with other people.

“By exploring the same ability in very different families in a new way, we can gain a deeper understanding of what we all have in common, the innate abilities that develop early in life. This is important for several reasons,” Gredebäck says. “The study gives hope and shows that early childhood holds opportunities for learning and development for all children, including those living in some of the most insecure environments in the world.”

The study was carried out in collaboration with researchers at Kabale University in Uganda, the University of Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe and Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences in Bhutan. From Uppsala University, researchers in peace and conflict studies, game design and psychology participated.

The project is funded by the Wallenberg Academy Fellows Programme, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW 2012.0120 and KAW 2017.0284).

 

Adverse situations experienced by the mother during childhood – such as neglect or physical, psychological or sexual violence – can trigger excessive weight gain in male children as early as the first two months of life. This was shown in a study that followed 352 pairs of newborns and their mothers in the cities of Guarulhos and São Paulo, Brazil. The results were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

The analyses indicated the occurrence of very early metabolic alterations in babies that not only led to weight gain above that expected for their age but also have the potential to increase the future risk of developing obesity and diabetes.

This is the first article resulting from a Thematic Project supported by FAPESP and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States. Using a database of 580 vulnerable pregnant women, the group is studying intergenerational trauma, i.e., negative effects that can be passed on to future generations, even if the offspring have not lived through such experiences.

Conducted by researchers from Columbia and Duke Universities, both in the United States, and the School of Medicine of the Federal University of São Paulo (EPM-UNIFESP) in Brazil, the study focuses on issues related to mother-baby interaction, development, and mental and physical health (read more at: agencia.fapesp.br/32577).

We observed that although the babies were born weighing within the expected parameters, in the first few days of life they showed altered weight gain, far above what’s recommended as ideal by the World Health Organization [WHO].”

Andrea Parolin Jackowski, professor at UNIFESP and coordinator of the project in Brazil

According to the WHO, the ideal weight gain in the first stage of life is up to 30 grams per day. However, the male babies in the study had an average weight gain of 35 grams per day – with some gaining up to 78 grams per day.

“The babies who took part in the study were born full-term, healthy and within the ideal weight range. All of the pregnancies we followed were low-risk, but our data showed that every adversity the mother experienced during childhood increased the babies’ weight gain by 1.8 grams per day. And this was limited to males,” the researcher reports.

According to Jackowski, there are many factors that can influence a baby’s weight in early life, and maternal childhood trauma appears to be one of them. For this reason, the analysis took care to control for so-called confounders – variables related to the mothers’ stress levels that could influence the results. Some examples include lifetime trauma experiences (the effects of which are cumulative) and current trauma, as well as education level and socioeconomic status.

“It’s also important to note that 70% of the babies who took part in the study were exclusively breastfed. The other 30% were on mixed feeding [a combination of breast milk and formula]. This means that they weren’t eating filled cookies or other foods that could actually change their weight. Therefore, the results suggest the occurrence of an early metabolic alteration in these babies,” she says.

Why only boys?

According to the researcher, maternal trauma during childhood only had an impact on the weight of male babies because of physiological variations in the placenta associated with the sex of the fetus.

The placenta is a temporary organ composed of maternal and fetal tissue that shows structural differences and differences in the regulation and expression of steroids and proteins depending on the sex of the baby. “Male fetuses develop strategies to maintain constant growth in the face of an adverse intrauterine environment, leading to a greater risk of prematurity and fetal death,” explains the researcher.

In addition, she adds, childhood adversity is known to increase the risk of depression and anxiety during pregnancy, which can lead to increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and cortisol in the intrauterine environment. “It appears that the placenta of female fetuses adapts to protect them, slowing down the growth rate without restricting intrauterine growth [i.e., the size of the baby is within the expected range at the end of pregnancy] and allowing for a higher survival rate,” she explains.

Another important issue is that the placenta of male fetuses tends to be more susceptible to fluctuations in substances and metabolites present in the maternal bloodstream compared to female placentas. “As a result, in these cases of trauma, it can become more permeable, causing the male fetus to be more exposed to inflammatory factors resulting from high levels of stress, such as cortisol and interleukins, for example.”

The work now published is the first to identify intergenerational trauma as a trigger for physical changes at such an early age. “It’s already known that adverse events in the mother’s childhood can trigger psychological and developmental problems, but our study is pioneering in showing that they can affect physical problems, such as weight gain, as early as the first two months of life,” says Jackowski.

Now, the research team, which includes Vinicius O. Santana and FAPESP postdoctoral fellow Aline C. Ramos, will follow the weight development of the children of mothers who suffered adversity in childhood until they are 24 months old. “We’re going to follow them for longer because we want to investigate the impact of the introduction of food, which usually occurs at 6 months of age,” she says.

As the researchers explain, the research suggests that metabolic changes can be modified. “It’s not a matter of determinism. We need to monitor how the metabolism and inflammatory factors behave in these babies over a longer period of time to understand how to modulate this process. It’s important to know that all of this is modifiable, and we’re now going to look at how we can intervene,” she says.

The link between proximity to greenspace – including trees and parks- and healthy birth outcomes is well established. Now new data from researchers at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health adds to our understanding of these health benefits, accounting for other factors that may influence this link, such as education, income and body mass index, but also taking the body of knowledge a step further by exploring the effect of residing near newly planted trees. The findings were recently published in the journal Science of The Total Environment.

Using a unique dataset – the planting of more than 36,000 trees between 1990 and 2020 in Portland, Oregon by the nonprofit group Friends of Trees – the researchers measured the number of new trees planted within 100 meters of a mother’s address for the first 10 years after their child’s birth, (using Jan. 1, 2015 – Dec. 31, 2020 birth data from the Oregon Health Authority), existing tree cover and road coverage in that area.

Controlling for factors that can influence birth weight, such as mother’s race, whether they’re pregnant for the first time, mother’s BMI and education level, the researchers found a link between number of trees planted and higher birth weight. Additionally, nearby tree planting, including new and existing trees, were associated with three key measures of newborn health: higher birth weight, lower risk of small-for-gestational-age birth and decreased risk of pre-term birth.

For example, each tree planted within 100 meters of a mother’s home within 10 years before a child’s birth was associated with a statistically significant 2.3-gram increase in birthweight. In contrast with previous studies that also looked at greenspace and pregnancy, the current study controlled for existing tree coverage to focus on the role newly planted trees may play in the health of newborns.

Although there is benefit from well-established trees, we’re finding that newly planted trees are also associated with healthy birth weight. This is another data point showing that planting trees is a relatively easy and low-cost way to improve public health from the earliest stages of a life.”

Yvonne Michael, ScD, senior author, professor and interim chair in the Dornsife School of Public Health

Living within 100 meters of at least 10 trees was associated with about a 50-gram increase in birthweight, according to the researchers. The birthweight benefit from trees generally tops out at about 10 trees, the researchers found.

“Fifty grams may not seem like a lot, but if every baby in our sample gained 50 grams at birth, that means 642 fewer babies considered small for gestational age, and at higher risk for worse development later in life,” said Michael, who noted that there were 2,879 babies with that diagnosis in the study.

Stress is associated with increased likelihood of delivering a baby preterm and poor health outcomes later in life. The authors speculate that established older trees near one’s address may provide more benefit than newly planted trees by also providing psychological restoration, as other studies have suggested that developed natural environments foster a “soft fascination” – in contrast with psychologically draining characteristics of buildings and other aspects of built environments.

“It’s rare to have detailed information on large-scale tree plantings for research,” said Michael. “Existing tree cover is often closely tied to factors like income, education, and race, making it difficult to fully account for other possible explanations when studying birth outcomes. By focusing on newly planted trees, we were able to reduce the bias — essentially treating it as a natural experiment. Plus, we observed the improvements in birth outcomes after trees were planted, establishing temporal order.”

In the current study, existing trees, but not newly planted ones, helped to mitigate some of the negative impact of road density – ratio of the length of roads in an area relative to the overall land area – on birthweight. The authors speculated that that this may be attributed to more developed leaves of established trees, which are better equipped to combat road noise and reduce air pollution.

Although the authors observed decreasing birthweight among babies during the study, they said this is likely attributed to other factors linked to lower birthweight, such as rising air temperatures and hazardous smoke from wildfires (in 2020) in the area. The authors’ dataset found that race, education and even existing tree canopy had no correlation with new trees planted in an area.

The authors note that a randomized controlled study is needed to definitively prove that the trees cause these positive health outcomes. However, the current study offers some of the best data available to support the link between trees and positive birth outcomes.

The latest study follows multiple papers delving into the effects of greenspace on health, including a 2013 study published by Michael and colleagues which found that the loss of 100 million trees to an invasive pest, called the emerald ash borer, coincided with an increase in heart disease deaths and lower-respiratory-tract illness in counties with more tree loss due to bug infestation.

In addition to Michael, other authors on this paper include Geoffrey H. Donovan, Jeffrey P. Prestemon and Abigail R. Kaminski from the USDA Forest Service.

New research published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology found that mothers who are anemic in early pregnancy face a higher likelihood of giving birth to a child with a heart defect.

The study assessed the health records of 2,776 women with a child diagnosed with congenital heart disease who were matched to 13,880 women whose children did not have this condition.

Investigators found that 4.4% of children with congenital heart disease and 2.8% of children with normal heart function had anemia. After adjusting for potential influencing factors, the odds of giving birth to a child with congenital heart disease was 47% higher among anemic mothers.

We already know that the risk of congenital heart disease can be raised by a variety of factors, but these results develop our understanding of anemia specifically and take it from lab studies to the clinic. Knowing that early maternal anemia is so damaging could be a gamechanger worldwide. Because iron deficiency is the root cause of many cases of anemia, widespread iron supplementation for women-both when trying for a baby and when pregnant-could help prevent congenital heart disease in many newborns before it has developed.”

Duncan B. Sparrow, PhD, corresponding author, University of Oxford

Researchers at UCLA Health are launching the first clinical trial to test whether a wearable device that delivers gentle nerve stimulation during sleep could ease ADHD symptoms in children with prenatal alcohol exposure.

Children exposed to alcohol in the womb have a heightened risk of developing ADHD-like symptoms including hyperactivity, impulsivity and executive function deficits such as difficulty paying attention, remembering, and organizing their behavior. Prenatal alcohol exposure affects about 5% of children in the U.S. with the majority developing these symptoms. These children are frequently less responsive to conventional pharmaceutical treatments for ADHD, such as psychostimulants, which can make the symptoms more disabling.

The two-year clinical trial, led by UCLA adjunct professor of child psychiatry Joseph O’Neill, will study whether a neurostimulation therapy may be an effective, at-home treatment option for these children.

Known as trigeminal nerve stimulation (TNS), the noninvasive therapy uses electrode patches attached to a small device that delivers gentle electric stimulation of the trigeminal nerve while the child sleeps. Parents place the electrode patches on the child’s forehead before bed, with the device left on overnight. This stimulation activates brain regions associated with attention and executive function.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the first external TNS device in 2019 after studies showed it safely improved ADHD symptoms in children ages seven to 12. However, its effectiveness for treating ADHD symptoms specifically for children with prenatal alcohol exposure has not been studied.

ADHD symptoms are highly disabling for children with prenatal alcohol exposure and difficult to manage for families. And these symptoms often fail to respond to standard treatment, such as drugs like methylphenidate, in children exposed to alcohol in the womb. There is a pressing need for expanded therapeutic options for these children. So, we are looking forward to testing this very safe novel therapy that has been effective in unexposed children with ADHD.”

Joseph O’Neill, UCLA adjunct professor of child psychiatry 

Funded by a $350,000 grant from the National Institutes of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the pilot clinical trial will involve 30 children ages eight to 12 with exposure to alcohol during gestation. Parents will be provided a Monarch eTNS device developed by the Los Angeles-based company NeuroSigma, Inc. to be used nightly for four weeks. The parents will keep track of the child’s executive function, sleep habits, negative side effects and any adverse events. Both parents and children will rate tolerability as well as their satisfaction with treatment.

If the treatment is determined to be feasible and effective, the study would proceed to a randomized crossover clinical trial. The NIAAA is set to provide up to $2.1 million for the three-year trial.

“I am thrilled to be a part of this innovative study that I hope will provide relief for both children and their families who suffer from the negative consequences associated with prenatal alcohol exposure because these children have so much to offer to society,” said study co-lead Mary O’Connor, professor emerita of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.

The recruitment period for the trial is currently open. Interested families may contact the study by emailing [email protected], calling (310) 267-2710, or taking the online screener at https://bit.ly/TNS-PAE

A new study by researchers from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and Vanderbilt University Medical Center found parental support for adolescent medical consent varied significantly depending on how the question was framed.

Tennessee’s Mature Minor Doctrine, which allowed for adolescent medical consent in some instances, became widely publicized during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic over highly politicized concerns that children could obtain COVID-19 vaccines against parental wishes.

State lawmakers temporarily curtailed the use of the doctrine at the time by restricting public health communications, while critics cited concerns for creating additional barriers to care.

Through the study-the findings of which were published in JAMA Network Open on Friday-the researchers randomly surveyed 1,026 Tennessee parents in an attempt to determine if the political response to the doctrine accurately reflected parents’ opinions on adolescent consent for medical services or if their opinions varied when the questions were framed using “Mature Minor Doctrine” as the primary example.

The result was a more than 20 percentage point difference in support of adolescent consent between the two study groups. Less than a quarter of parents (22.9%) expressed support when it was described as the “Mature Minor Doctrine,” whereas closer to half (43.2%) supported it when it was framed as a “rule” with an example, such as 17-year-old college students getting meningitis vaccines or children ages 14-18 talking to a therapist.

Even though this is a survey of parents in just one state, it’s an important example of how the conversations around vaccines happening at the federal level are trickling down to the states. It also provides perspective on what parents are thinking and if their thoughts align with what politicians and leaders are doing. These results really speak to how parents are practical when it comes to things like this. They might not be agreeable when you give a blanket statement around adolescent consent, but when you take the time to describe to them how this applies to their child being able to speak to a therapist or receiving a preventative vaccine while they’re away at college, it helps frame the issue for them better.”

Sarah Loch, lead author and program director in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Rollins

Since the study was conducted, Tennessee state lawmakers passed 2023’s Mature Minor Clarification Act, which counteracted the state’s longstanding Mature Minor Doctrine by requiring parental consent for childhood vaccines and written consent for COVID-19 vaccines, specifically, fueling concern for declining rates of childhood vaccination.

Because the survey results suggest the trend of parental rights legislation might not align with parents’ actual opinions, the researchers say the findings highlight the urgency for trustworthy health messaging from clinicians and public health agencies to account for the influence of trending political and cultural movements.

“Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a rise in misinformation about vaccines and a decline in vaccination rates even for routine childhood vaccines. Our study shows that providing clear and detailed information matters a lot to parents as they navigate what can be challenging issues,” says Stephen Patrick, MD, the study’s senior author and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Rollins.

Adolescents who sleep for longer – and from an earlier bedtime – than their peers tend to have improved brain function and perform better at cognitive tests, researchers from the UK and China have shown.

But the study of adolescents in the US also showed that even those with better sleeping habits were not reaching the amount of sleep recommended for their age group.

Sleep plays an important role in helping our bodies function. It is thought that while we are asleep, toxins that have built up in our brains are cleared out, and brain connections are consolidated and pruned, enhancing memory, learning, and problem-solving skills. Sleep has also been shown to boost our immune systems and improve our mental health.

During adolescence, our sleep patterns change. We tend to start going to bed later and sleeping less, which affects our body clocks. All of this coincides with a period of important development in our brain function and cognitive development. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says that the ideal amount of sleep during this period is between eight- and 10-hours’ sleep.

Regularly getting a good night’s sleep is important in helping us function properly, but while we know a lot about sleep in adulthood and later life, we know surprisingly little about sleep in adolescence, even though this is a crucial time in our development. How long do young people sleep for, for example, and what impact does this have on their brain function and cognitive performance?”

Professor Barbara Sahakian, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge

Studies looking at how much sleep adolescents get usually rely on self-reporting, which can be inaccurate. To get around this, a team led by researchers at Fudan University, Shanghai, and the University of Cambridge turned to data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States.

As part of the ABCD Study, more than 3,200 adolescents aged 11-12 years old had been given FitBits, allowing the researchers to look at objective data on their sleep patterns and to compare it against brain scans and results from cognitive tests. The team double-checked their results against two additional groups of 13-14 years old, totalling around 1,190 participants. The results are published today in Cell Reports.

The team found that the adolescents could be divided broadly into one of three groups:

Group One, accounting for around 39% of participants, slept an average (mean) of 7 hours 10 mins. They tended to go to bed and fall asleep the latest and wake up the earliest.

Group Two, accounting for 24% of participants, slept an average of 7 hours 21 mins. They had average levels across all sleep characteristics.

Group Three, accounting for 37% of participants, slept an average of 7 hours 25 mins. They tended to go to bed and fall asleep the earliest and had lower heart rates during sleep.

Although the researchers found no significant differences in school achievement between the groups, when it came to cognitive tests looking at aspects such as vocabulary, reading, problem solving and focus, Group Three performed better than Group Two, which in turn performed better than Group One.

Group Three also had the largest brain volume and best brain functions, with Group One the smallest volume and poorest brain functions.

Professor Sahakian said: “Even though the differences in the amount of sleep that each group got was relatively small, at just over a quarter-of-an-hour between the best and worst sleepers, we could still see differences in brain structure and activity and in how well they did at tasks. This drives home to us just how important it is to have a good night’s sleep at this important time in life.”

First author Dr Qing Ma from Fudan University said: “Although our study can’t answer conclusively whether young people have better brain function and perform better at tests because they sleep better, there are a number of studies that would support this idea. For example, research has shown the benefits of sleep on memory, especially on memory consolidation, which is important for learning.”

The researchers also assessed the participants’ heart rates, finding that Group Three had the lowest heart rates across the sleep states and Group One the highest. Lower heart rates are usually a sign of better health, whereas higher rates often accompany poor sleep quality like restless sleep, frequent awakenings and excessive daytime sleepiness.

Because the ABCD Study is a longitudinal study – that is, one that follows its participants over time – the team was able to show that the differences in sleep patterns, brain structure and function, and cognitive performance, tended be present two years before and two years after the snapshot that they looked at.

Senior author Dr Wei Cheng from Fudan University added: “Given the importance of sleep, we now need to look at why some children go to bed later and sleep less than others. Is it because of playing videogames or smartphones, for example, or is just that their body clocks do not tell them it’s time to sleep until later?”

The research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Postdoctoral Foundation of China and Shanghai Postdoctoral Excellence Program. The ABCD Study is supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Owlstone Medical (“Owlstone”), the global leader in Breath Biopsy^® for applications in early disease detection and precision medicine, today announced that the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has made an up to USD $2.3 million equity investment (circa £1.7 million) in Owlstone to develop a breath test for Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) detection in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF).

The goal of the investment is to develop a breath-based test suitable for both early detection of new PA infection and monitoring of chronic infection in patients with CF, with diagnostic accuracy at least comparable to sputum culture tests. Leveraging Owlstone’s expertise in volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis, the test will also be developed to distinguish PA from S. aureus and other common respiratory bacterial pathogens found in the lungs of people with CF.

Initial work will focus on chronic PA to establish scientific proof-of-principle that VOCs on breath can identify this lung infection and be utilized as part of long-term monitoring of infection. If successful, additional work can be organized to test the ability of this approach to detect new PA infections—an important event in the clinical care of people with CF.

CF is a progressive genetic disorder affecting over 105,000 individuals worldwide. Characterized by excessive mucus production that traps pathogens in the lungs, CF causes severe lung infections and can lead to respiratory failure. PA, which affects an estimated 25% of CF patients, represents a significant threat to people with CF. Once established in the lungs, PA is very difficult to eliminate, making early detection and aggressive treatment of infection critical.

PA is typically detected through sputum culture; however, this is difficult to perform in many children and is becoming increasingly challenging in adults with CF because of the beneficial effects of other therapies that reduce airway mucus and hence the ability to provide a suitable sputum sample.

Owlstone’s experience in the breath-based detection of infectious disease through projects with the U.S. Department of Defense, the Gates Foundation, and other partners, underpinned by our proprietary Breath Biopsy platform, places Owlstone in an excellent position to help improve outcomes for CF patients infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Billy Boyle, Co-founder and CEO, Owlstone Medical

He added: “Data from the study will also be entered into Owlstone’s Breath VOC Atlas, where it will continue to be used in clinical studies and analyses to support further biomarker and test development across a wide range of disease areas.” 

A Spanish food study reveals that even baby foods and meals in glass jars can contain concerning levels of plastic additives, with one chemical exceeding safety thresholds in infants under high-exposure scenarios.

Study: Plastic additives in the diet: occurrence and dietary exposure in different population groups

In a recent study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, researchers examined exposure to plastic additives in the diet.

The widespread use of plastics has led to human exposure to contaminants through diverse routes. Plastic additives, such as organophosphate esters (OPEs) and phthalic acid esters (PAEs or phthalates), have been historically used as plasticizers. However, these are now recognized as toxic, especially in the context of food intake. As such, less toxic non-phthalate plasticizers (NPPs) have been employed in the plastics industry.

However, there remains doubt and controversy over human exposure and the fate of these substitute chemicals. For instance, acetyl tributyl citrate (ATBC), an NPP, is extensively used in plastic polymers due to its outstanding mechanical properties. Despite the relative lack of toxicity, recent studies have raised health concerns for its possible involvement in antiestrogenic activity, neurodegenerative diseases, fatty liver disease onset, and effects on growth and neurodevelopment.

Notably, ATBC is authorized for food contact use under both EU and US regulatory frameworks, but studies have suggested biological activity at exposure levels relevant to diet.

One unexpected finding was the high occurrence of ATBC in foods packaged in glass containers, which the authors attribute to the use of plasticized varnishes in the lids that can transfer the additive to the food.

About the study

In the present study, researchers assessed the concentrations and chemistry of NPPs, OPEs, and PAEs in foods representative of the Spanish diet. Food samples were collected from grocery stores in Barcelona between January and April 2022. Diverse products from different brands were randomly collected without pre-selecting packaging types. This approach maximized sampling variability, encompassing a range of dietary exposure scenarios.

Foods were classified into eight groups: 1) baby foods, 2) condiments, 3) fishery products, 4) eggs and dairy products, 5) meat, 6) oils, 7) fruits and vegetables, and 8) cereals, legumes, and sweet products. Ready-to-cook meals packaged in polypropylene and roasting bags made of polyethylene terephthalate were purchased. Plastic materials were not used during analytical procedures to mitigate contamination.

The team analyzed 4 NPPs, 20 OPEs, and 11 PAEs. Transference experiments were performed using conventional and microwave oven cooking methods. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis was performed to measure plastic additives. Further, exposure to plasticizers through foods was examined by calculating the estimated daily intakes (EDIs) for infants, toddlers, and adults.

Findings

The results revealed widespread detection and notable differences across food types and age groups.

Overall, 109 food samples were analyzed. Of these, 85% contained at least one plasticizer. NPPs were the most commonly detected, with a detection frequency (DF) of 62%, followed by OPEs (DF: 52%) and PAEs (DF: 51%). The median concentrations of NPPs, OPEs, and PAEs were 12.4 ng/g wet weight (ww), 0.17 ng/g ww, and 1.07 ng/g ww, respectively.

NPPs were significantly different between cereals, legumes, and sweet products and fruits and vegetables, between meat and fruits and vegetables, and between fruits and vegetables and baby foods. Likewise, OPEs differed significantly between eggs and dairy products, and between condiments and fruits and vegetables.

PAEs were not significantly different across food groups. Furthermore, intragroup analysis revealed significant differences in OPEs and NPPs across meat, cereals, legumes, and sweets. Overall, 20 plasticizers were detected in foods; these included five PAEs, three NPPs, and 12 OPEs. ATBC was the most common, with a DF of 41%, followed by di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DEHA) with a DF of 31%.

ATBC was mainly found in cereals, legumes, sweets, and baby foods, with a DF of 70%. Meanwhile, DEHA was mainly detected in meat (DF: 90%) and eggs and dairy products (DF: 65%). The highest concentration of ATBC was observed in condiments, reaching 21,563 ng/g, a significant outlier compared to other food groups.

Heat map of HQs in selected population groups, normalized on a logarithmic scale, considering median (P50) and 95^th percentile (P95) scenarios (highlighted boxes indicate HQ values greater than 10^-1).

Further, there were significant differences in DEHA and ATBC across foods by packaging type. ATBC was predominantly detected in foods packaged in glass containers, likely due to migration from plasticized coatings in lids, while DEHA was mainly found in fresh foods wrapped in plastic.

The transference experiments involving microwave oven-cooking indicated that the total additive levels in asparagus puree and Spanish tortilla meals remained or were reduced after cooking. These meals required less than three minutes of cooking at 800 watts. PAEs were the major additives, which decreased after cooking. By contrast, potato and broccoli ready-to-cook meals have longer cooking times of seven and five minutes, respectively.

The researchers observed a 50-fold increase in ATBC levels after cooking these meals, for example, from 1.55 ng/g to 82.5 ng/g in broccoli and from 24.1 ng/g to 104 ng/g in potatoes. DEHA and DINP also increased in concentration after cooking. In conventional oven cooking, meat was cooked in roasting bags. Chicken showed the highest concentrations of additives, especially DEHA, which increased upon cooking.

The EDI of total plasticizers in adults was 288 ng/kg body weight (bw)/day, rising as high as 44,800 ng/kg bw/day under high-exposure scenarios (the 95th percentile), with meat and cereals, legumes, and sweet products being the main contributors at 59% and 20%, respectively.

Among additives, NPPs and PAEs were the largest groups in daily intake. The EDI of plasticizers showed substantial variations between infants and toddlers. The median EDI of plasticizers was 1,155 ng/kg bw/day for toddlers and 2,262 ng/kg bw/day for infants. Baby foods were the primary source of plasticizers for infants, while meat was the predominant source for toddlers. NPPs were the largest group in daily intake for both populations.

Under normal exposure scenarios (median values), estimated daily intakes for infants were 2,262 ng/kg bw/day, but under high-exposure conditions (95th percentile), the EDI in infants reached 516,000 ng/kg bw/day (516 µg/kg bw/day). Differences between normal and high-exposure scenarios were especially pronounced for infants and toddlers, with baby foods and meat being the dominant contributors, depending on the group and exposure level.

For DEHP, hazard quotient (HQ) values exceeded 1 in infants under high-exposure scenarios, indicating that estimated intakes surpassed established safety thresholds and suggesting a potential health risk for this group.

The study also highlights that HQ values varied by compound and exposure scenario, with some OPEs and other PAEs contributing to risk in the highest exposure groups. An HQ value greater than 1 implies that the estimated intake exceeds the reference dose, potentially indicating a level of concern, though not definitive harm.

It is important to note that dietary intake is only one of several possible exposure routes to these additives; others include dust ingestion, inhalation, and dermal contact.

The study authors also acknowledge limitations, including the geographic focus on Barcelona, variability in packaging and consumption data, the use of default body weight estimates for different age groups, and the fact that not all plastic additives have established safety reference values. These factors mean the findings should be considered preliminary and highlight the need for further research and ongoing monitoring.

Conclusions

In sum, plastic additives were detected in 85% of samples, with up to 20 different additives identified. Meat, condiments, baby foods, and fishery products had the highest levels of plastic additives. DEHA and ATBC were prominent in the meat and baby food industries.

Additionally, there were significant differences among packaging types, with DEHA being associated with bulk-sold foods and ATBC being associated with glass packaging. The occurrence of extremely high concentrations in some samples, such as the outlier in condiments, underscores the variability in exposure. These results provide preliminary insights into the levels of plasticizers in foods, offering a foundation for future analyses.

The findings also underscore the importance of continued research and regulatory attention, particularly for high-risk groups such as infants and toddlers.

University of Oklahoma researchers recently launched the Children’s Environmental Health Center in the U.S. Southern Great Plains, a groundbreaking initiative dedicated to advancing research on children’s health and environmental exposures, following a year of preparation. Funded by a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, this new center aims to reduce school absences by addressing the health impacts affecting children in rural and agricultural communities across the Southern Great Plains. The research will also inform the development of effective and affordable interventions to improve health outcomes for children.

Our team is working to understand how early-life exposure to both chemical and non-chemical stressors affect children’s health and well-being in these communities. The goal of the center is to better serve the Southern Great Plains region, with a focus on mitigating early-life stage exposures that span from prenatal development through early childhood to adolescence, particularly in rural agricultural communities.”

Changjie Cai, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health at the Hudson College of Public Health and leader on the project

This collaborative center is led by Cai, who serves as its director and is the principal investigator for the research effort. The team includes Diane Horm, Ph.D., a professor emeritus and the founding director of the OU-Tulsa Childhood Education Institute, and Dan Li, Ph.D., an associate professor in the OU Department of Health Promotion Sciences.

The center builds on the ongoing OK-AIR project (Advancing Indoor-environment Research for Children in Oklahoma), which is led by Horm, and will continue and expand upon its work. The OK-AIR project is originally funded by the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness and the Preschool Development Grant.

Research has shown that children in rural and agricultural communities face increased health risks due to environmental exposures. These risks stem from pollutants in the air, water and soil and extreme weather, as well as socioeconomic stressors such as poverty and limited access to health care. The center aims to reduce school absenteeism by addressing these key environmental and social factors. “This progress is the result of strong school-family-community partnerships and the implementation of a comprehensive, tiered approach,” Li said.

“At the Early Childhood Education Institute, our mission has always been to support the well-being of young children through research,” Horm said. “This collaboration will allow us to better assess and address the factors influencing children’s health in rural areas.”

The center will also develop a community-driven and data-driven Children’s Health and Social Vulnerability Index at both the community level and individual level to assess health and social needs in rural programs. This index will identify both chemical and non-chemical stressors associated with school absenteeism and will guide comprehensive, tiered interventions aimed at improving children’s health, educational outcomes and overall well-being in these communities.