Women who drink unfiltered tap water during pregnancy may unwittingly be doubling their risk of serious heart or brain effects in their unborn child.

Studies carried out in Taiwan on 400,000 babies found a definite link between chemicals formed in chlorination and the occurrence of certain abnormalities, such as a hole in the heart and cleft lip. And the odds of brain defects were almost doubled, the Journal Environmental Health reported. It isn’t just tap water but water from showers, swimming pools and even a steaming kettle that may contain problem chemicals called THMs or trihalmomethanes. Experts believe the problem chemicals may harm the unborn baby or damage a baby’s eggs.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 4:40 am and is filed under In the News, Pregnancy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.