Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 17, 2025

Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Based Developmental Toxicity Assays for Chemical Safety Screening and Systems Biology Data Generation
Published on: June 17, 2015
Exposures to non-therapeutic chemicals before, during and after pregnancy: data from the Swiss Teratogen Information
Piranavie Srikantha1,2, Ursula Winterfeld3, Francois Girardin3
1Department of Obstetrics, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Aims Of The Study:
Limited knowledge exists regarding exposures to non-therapeutic chemicals by women planning to conceive, or during pregnancy or breastfeeding. The Swiss Teratogen Information Service (STIS) provides information to healthcare professionals about medications and other exposures during pregnancy or breastfeeding. This study aimed to describe the queries on non-therapeutic chemicals addressed to the STIS over the past two decades.
Methods:
Using data from the STIS for the years 2000 to 2019, we conducted a descriptive analysis of all queries related to women's exposures to non-therapeutic chemicals during pregnancy planning, pregnancy or breastfeeding.
Results:
Over two decades, the STIS database recorded 320 exposures to chemicals. Workplace settings accounted for over 60% of queries, followed by exposures at home (20%). In almost half (48%) of the queries, more than one chemical was mentioned, totalling 885 chemicals across these 320 queries. Commonly mentioned chemicals included isopropanol, acetone and lead. Solvents were the leading category of products (16%), followed by cleaning products (10%), paints (8%) and insecticides (5%). The follow-up data showed five diverse cases of congenital malformations, accounting for 4.0% (5 out of 125) of the sample, a figure in line with the background risk of malformations in the general population.
Conclusions:
This study emphasises the importance of conducting research that comprehensively captures the highly heterogeneous exposures to non-therapeutic chemicals during pregnancy and suggests that attention should be given not only to professional settings, but also to domestic contexts.
More Related Videos
16:02Demonstration of the Sequence Alignment to Predict Across Species Susceptibility Tool for Rapid Assessment of Protein Conservation
Published on: February 10, 2023
07:08Long-term Behavioral and Reproductive Consequences of Embryonic Exposure to Low-dose Toxicants
Published on: March 6, 2018
Related Concept Videos
Teratogenicity
Types of Toxins
Air pollutants, primarily gases, pose significant threats to respiratory health, leading to conditions like hypoxia, lung cancer, and in extreme cases, death.
Environmental pollutants like...
Mutagenicity and Carcinogenicity
Sexually Transmitted Infections
Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast,...