In addition to pesticides, other chemicals found in modern homes—fire retardants and plastic compounds—may also be toxic to the microbiome, the trillions of beneficial microbes that live in your digestive tract, according to a report by Mehr News Agency, citing MedicineNet.
Lead author of the study, Indra Roux, from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Toxicology, said: “We found that many chemicals designed to affect just one type of target, such as insects or fungi, also affect gut bacteria. We were surprised that some of these chemicals had such potent effects. For example, many industrial chemicals, such as fire retardants and fabric softeners—which we come into contact with regularly—were not thought to affect living things in any way, but they do.”
In their research, Roux and his colleagues tested 1,076 chemicals on 22 different species of beneficial bacteria normally found in the human gut. As they noted in a university news release, this is only a fraction of the approximately 4,500 known beneficial bacterial species that live in or on the human body.
Disruptions in the gut microbiome can lead to a range of health problems, including obesity, digestive problems, immune diseases, and even mental health issues.
In total, the Cambridge team identified 168 chemicals that appear to harm gut bacteria and inhibit their healthy growth.
The research also found that the bacteria’s efforts to resist these chemicals have led to some strains becoming resistant to a common antibiotic, ciprofloxacin. This could make infections more difficult to treat with antibiotics, the study authors said.
The only way to reduce exposure to pesticides, the authors said, is to wash fruits and vegetables before eating and not use pesticides in the home garden.
Many chemicals, such as pesticides, are designed to target insects, but their effects on the bacteria in the microbiome have not been studied.
“The new data may be useful in developing safer chemicals,” said Kiran Patil, the study’s senior author and also from the university’s toxicology department.
The researchers noted that the studies were conducted in the lab, so the exact extent of exposure to pesticides and other chemicals by gut bacteria is still unknown.
"Now that we've started to explore these interactions in the lab, it's important to start collecting more data on real-world chemical exposures to see if there are similar effects in our bodies," Patil said.