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Most people know that when a woman is pregnant, she should avoid drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes, and engage in activities that might harm both her and her unborn child. However, a recent study found that one of the things that most women use to make themselves beautiful, hair sprays, is found to be the number one cause of an increasingly common birth defect found in boys.

According to the study conducted by researchers from the Amiens University Hospital in France, pregnant women are exposed to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) or chemicals that affect fetal development that increase the risk of the unborn fetus to have altered sexual differentiation and the increasingly common birth defect in boys, hypospadias. The researchers examined the effects of maternal exposure to EDCs and the likelihood of the fetus to be born with a birth defect. The study found that among the chemical tested,

The study defines hypospadias as a congenital malformation in males that affects the virility of the male genitalia causing impaired male urinary and sexual functions. Just like hypospadias, other disorders like low sperm counts, and testicular germ cancer, most medical experts hypothesized that these disorders commonly occur during the development of the fetus. Moreover, it is believed that testicular dysgenesis syndrome (TDS), of which hypospadias is under, is said to be a result from the combinations of lifestyle, genetic, or environmental factors.

In order to investigate which endocrine-disrupting chemicals are most likely to cause the birth defect, the researchers compared the maternal exposure to pesticides, hair sprays, industrial chemicals, plastics and/or medications. A total of 250 women who have given to boys with and without hypospadias were surveyed and examined. The study also looked into the exposure of the mother from chemicals in her occupation.

The results of the study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, found that exposure of a pregnant woman to hair sprays and hair cosmetic products like coloring shampoo increases the risk of the development of hypospadias on the unborn baby by at least 80 percent. Compared to other chemicals tested for maternal exposure, hair sprays and hair cosmetic products are twice as likely to affect the development of the fetus leading to hypospadias and other birth defects and disorders.

Moreover, the findings of the recent study affirm the results of two previous studies examining the relationship between maternal exposure and EDCs, particularly hair cosmetic products, on the increased risk of hypospadias. One of the studies found a significant correlation between maternal exposure to hairsprays on the jobs in manufacturing plant. The other study also found an increasing number of babies born with hypospadias whose mothers work as hairdressers.