Parenthood

Could Your Printer Be Making You Miscarry?

Is there any chemical in common use now that doesn't heighten miscarriage risk?

Following the long list of every day chemicals that could cause potential infertility due to overexposure, we can now start a list of products that might cause women to miscarry, too.

Mother Jones starts us off with — printers and cameras.

Did you print a piece of paper today? Or use a digital camera? If so, it could have exposed you to glymes, a clear liquid class of chemicals used as solvents in printer ink, carpet cleaners and other household products. For a decade, the EPA has known about studies that link glymes to health problems including miscarriages, developmental damage, and gene mutation. And yet only now is the agency beginning to regulate them. This July, the EPA announced that it plans to clamp down on glymes, which may join the ranks of the 360 chemicals subject to the EPA’s “significant new use rule.” This means that any time a company wants to use glymes, it would have to ask the EPA first.

BPA in your bottles and printer receipts?  Glymes in your printers and household products?  Hair dryers that can cause newborn asthma?  It’s a wonder we manage to get pregnant and get any child past the age of two these days.