A coalition of EU groups welcomed the consensus statement to be released this afternoon from the Paris conference on Environmental Stressors in the Developmental Origins of Disease: Evidence and Mechanisms

The experts conclude in the statement, that exposure to environmental contaminants in the womb may result in many individuals being more susceptible to serious disease later in life.

“Early development (particularly in-utero) is particularly sensitive to perturbations by chemical exposures with likely adverse consequences for health in later life, including obesity, diabetes, neuro-developmental disorders, precocious puberty, and hormone related cancers, such as of the breast, prostate and testes. Undescended testicles, low semen quality, sub-fecundity, polycystic ovarian syndrome and uterine fibromyoma have also all been linked to chemical exposures” .

See the HEAL, Réseau Environnement Santé (RES), Générations Futures (GF), Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), and CHEM Trust information release here: Information release

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Published by wildcardenvironmentalist

Helen Lynn has worked on issues linking women, gender, health and the environment since 1995, initially at the Women’s Environmental Network where she was health co-ordinator for 12 years, then as a freelance consultant. She has worked internationally and at EU level with Women in Europe for a Common Future and is on their International Advisory Board. Her campaign work began with Putting Breast Cancer on the Map, which encouraged women to map local sources of pollution alongside incidence of breast cancer and she was one of the founders of the No More Breast Cancer Campaign. She is on the Soil Associations Health Products Standards Committee which develops and keeps under review standards for organic health and beauty care products. While at WEN she and the health team initiated the Getting Lippy campaign on harmful ingredients in cosmetics, the campaign covered all aspects of the issue including information on toxic ingredients, making your own cosmetics, misleading labelling and advertising of the products and which alternatives are available. Other campaigns Helen worked on included the Ban Lindane (a toxic pesticide used on crops) Campaign, Healthy Flooring, Enviromenstrual, and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. She currently facilitates the Alliance for Cancer Prevention which works with occupational and environmental health specialists and activists to challenge the existing emphasis on control and treatment of cancer as the only way forward and to get equal recognition for primary prevention, particularly in relation to environmental and occupational risk factors. In 2014 along with fellow breast cancer activists she began the From Pink to Prevention campaign which aims to move the agenda towards Stopping Breast Cancer before it Starts.