Tag Archives: babies

Early Exposure to Allergens May Reduce Risk of Allergies, Asthma

It may sound a little gross, but a new study suggests that infants exposed to rodent and pet dander, roach allergens, and a variety of household bacteria in their first year of life appear less likely to develop allergies and asthma.

baby and puppy

The study was conducted by scientists from the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and other institutions, and was published June 6 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. It showed that early exposure to bacteria and some specific allergens could have an effect on shaping immune responses in young children.

This may help prevent allergies and asthma later in life.

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FDA Denies Ban of BPA in Food Packaging

The Food and Drug Admisnistraion is denying The Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) request to ban BPA from the United States.

The Food and Drug Administration’s assessment is that the scientific evidence currently suggests that the very low levels of human exposure to BPA through the diet are not unsafe.

With the support of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Toxicology Program (NTP), scientists at FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) have been studying BPA. The NCTR researchers have been conducting in-depth studies of BPA since September 2024 to see if there are potential toxic effects of BPA on fetuses, infants and children.

According to a statement released from the FDA, the findings showed the level of BPA from food that could be passed from pregnant mothers to the fetus is so low that it was immeasurable. Researchers fed pregnant rodents 100 to 1,000 times more BPA than people are exposed to through food, and could not detect the active form of BPA in the fetus eight hours after the mother’s exposure. The study also showed BPA exposure to infants were lower than previously believed. In fact, 84 to 92 percent lower than previously estimated. (more…)