Health issues and the environment--an emerging paradigm for providers of obstetrical and gynaecological health care

Abstract

Although ongoing study is required to winnow environmental ideology from scientific fact, existing evidence from recent research demonstrates a definitive link between chemical toxicants and potential health sequelae, including congenital affliction and gynaecological disorders. Amid media clamour of health risk and biological peril associated with various environmental toxicants, a spectrum of responses has emerged: some have embraced the environmental cause, some have summarily dismissed it as piffle and perhaps the majority has remained disinterested. Although journals devoted to toxicological and environmental health concerns have become prominent in academia with voluminous numbers of scientific reports being published, there has been limited exploration of the relationship between contemporary chemical exposure and reproductive medical issues in mainstream obstetrics and gynaecology literature. Providers of obstetrical and gynaecological health care need to acquire knowledge of taking an exposure history, instruction in details of precautionary avoidance, skills to provide preconception care and necessary tools to investigate and manage patients with toxicant exposure.