How #AirPollution is causing girls to get their first #periods earlier
New research shows that girls in the US are getting their first periods earlier. Exposure to toxic air is partly to blame.
By David Cox, June 4, 2024
"The same trend has also been noted around the world. South Korean scientists have described with some alarm how the number of girls displaying signs of precocious puberty – either breast development or #menstruation before the age of eight - increased 16-fold between 2008 and 2020.
"We're also seeing that these decreasing ages at puberty are even more pronounced in lower socioeconomic status groups, and ethnic minority groups," says Audrey Gaskins, an associate professor at Emory University in Atlanta, the US. "This has important implications for long-term health."
Researchers like Gaskins are primarily concerned that beginning puberty earlier might trigger a cascade of events which have far-reaching consequences later in adulthood. Emerging data suggests that it may not only curtail the fertility window, particularly if these women then enter menopause sooner, but shorten their lives. Precocious puberty has been repeatedly associated with a higher risk of diseases ranging from breast and ovarian cancers, metabolic syndromes such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease."
By David Cox, June 4, 2024
"For several decades, scientists around the world have become increasingly concerned by signs that girls are entering puberty at a much younger age compared with previous generations.
From when girls experience their first period, something which scientists term the age of menarche, to commencing breast development, these seminal changes marking the onset of adolescence appear to be taking place progressively sooner.
"American girls today have been estimated to start menstruation up to four years earlier compared to girls living a century ago. In May, new data showed that while girls born between 1950 and 1969 typically began menstruating at 12.5 years, this decreased to an average of 11.9 years for the generation born in the early 2000s.
"The same trend has also been noted around the world. South Korean scientists have described with some alarm how the number of girls displaying signs of precocious puberty – either breast development or menstruation before the age of eight - increased 16-fold between 2008 and 2020.
"'We're also seeing that these decreasing ages at puberty are even more pronounced in lower socioeconomic status groups, and ethnic minority groups,' says Audrey Gaskins, an associate professor at Emory University in Atlanta, the US. 'This has important implications for long-term health.'
"Researchers like Gaskins are primarily concerned that beginning puberty earlier might trigger a cascade of events which have far-reaching consequences later in adulthood. Emerging data suggests that it may not only curtail the fertility window, particularly if these women then enter menopause sooner, but shorten their lives. Precocious puberty has been repeatedly associated with a higher risk of diseases ranging from breast and ovarian cancers, metabolic syndromes such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
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"Some of the major culprits appear to be #ToxicGases such as #SulphurDioxide, #NitrogenDioxide, #CarbonMonoxide and #ozone, all of which are released into the air either through #VehicleEmissions or waste produced by #Manufacturing Plants. In 2022, a study from scientists in Poland, a country known for its poor air quality due to the prevalence of #coal-burning factories, examined data from 1,257 women, and found a link between greater exposure to nitrogen gases and menstruation occurring before the age of 11."