Carrie Nobles to Study Effects of Contaminants on Fertility and Pregnancy

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Carrie Nobles

Carrie Nobles, assistant professor of environmental health sciences, will examine the effects of certain long-lasting chemicals and heavy metals on fertility and pregnancy under a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

In addition to raising awareness of public policy decisions made around chemicals and other pollutants, she will help lead a team identifying exposure to several persistent environmental chemicals for over 1,200 couples who were trying to become pregnant. 

“Exposure to these chemicals can impact hormones, they can impact development of embryos,” Nobles says. “They can impact what we’re looking at—whether couples are able to have a healthy pregnancy when they choose to grow their family.”

Among the chemicals the researchers will be examining are PFAS, which has been commonly used in firefighting foam and non-stick cookware; PBDEs, which have been used as a fire retardant in household products; and heavy metals, including lead.

Many of these substances have been banned in recent years, or limited in production, but still remain persistent in the environment, leading to long-term exposure. 

Nobles says there has been research in animals—and some in humans—that suggests exposure might be bad for reproductive health. 

She added that exposure goes beyond contamination in water, soil or the air. “A lot of these exposures also occur in the household, too,” she says. “They can be in household products that people have used long term, which means that they are exposed indoors as well.”

And geography can be a factor, as well—Nobles said over 80% of those who participated in the study lived in the Salt Lake City, Utah, area, where there is an abundance of heavy industrial activity. Others who participated were located in Buffalo, New York, Denver, Colorado, and Scranton, Pennsylvania.

“If you hear that you live in an area where you might have an exposure, or if you work in a field where you might uniquely be exposed to a chemical, understanding those risks is really important,” she says.

Nobles will be joined in the study by Kurunthachalam Kannan and Patrick Parsons of the New York State Department of Public Health.