Issues > March/April 2007 (#119) > Green Room to Grow In

Green Room to Grow In

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When Mary Tyler Johnson, M.P.H., and her husband, Jesse, hosted an environmental-health discussion in their Lower Manhattan apartment last year, "Many people in the room said their main interest was in protecting their baby," Mary recalls. She herself began eating organic foods, "especially foods that would otherwise have lots of pesticides" (like apples and strawberries) and using green cleaning products, no-VOC paints and least-toxic personal care products before she became pregnant with their first child. One good reason for taking precautions: Studies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Working Group indicate that all of our bodies have absorbed toxic chemicals. Many of these, such as lead, mercury and PBDE flame retardants, can cross the placenta, exposing the fetus. "Jesse had his 'body burden' tested and they found every kind of problematic chemical. I just wanted to reduce what exposures I could," Mary says.

Mary made sure that no pesticides were sprayed in her apartment and is seeking the same for communal areas, such as the gym and children's playroom. As she was working towards her master's of public health at Columbia, Mary learned about the long-term study of 730 non-smoking mother/child pairs being conducted by Frederica Perera, Ph.D., director of Columbia University's Center for Children's Environmental Health. While pregnant, the women wore small backpacks containing monitors that measured pollutants in the air they breathed. Mothers' and babies' blood and urine were regularly tested. One of Perera's early findings was that babies with higher levels of the pesticide chlorpyrifos in umbilical cord blood, a sign of higher pre-natal exposure, were born smaller than those with lower blood levels. As preschoolers, this group were more likely to have developmental problems, including early evidence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Higher prenatal exposures to combustion-related air pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), lead to adverse effects such as stunted fetal growth and cognitive development. PAHs, produced by fossil fuel burning and found in ETS, are also being linked to chromosomal aberration—a biomarker of cancers—and asthma.

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