An international team, led by Berkeley University in California, has found that women who don’t dust furniture at home regularly take longer to conceive as compared to those those who do the household chores.
The chemicals called PBDEs — in use since the 1970s — leach out through dust on surfaces. They can be inhaled and then stored in human fat cells. And, women are half as likely to conceive if they have high levels of PBDE in their blood.
Lead researcher Kim Harley said: “There have been numerous animal studies that have found a range of health effects from exposure to PBDEs, but very little research has been done in humans. This is the first study to address impact on human fertility and results are surprisingly strong.”
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