Strasbourg wants to help pregnant women protect themselves against endocrine disruptors

Endocrine disruptors are a real health scourge that endangers the health of adults and children. For mothers-to-be, exposure to these harmful substances can have serious consequences for the development of the fetus (and beyond). To protect pregnant women and their babies, the city of Strasbourg has just launched a system unique in France: the green regulation. Light on this exemplary initiative.

This system, voted unanimously at the Strasbourg City Council, will come into effect from September 2022. Objective? Protect pregnant women and the child they are carrying from endocrine disruptors. But what exactly does this green recipe consist of?

“This is the most sensitive period for endocrine disruptors. The latter, which unfortunately are massively present in our environments, have a major impact on pregnant women, but also on future children: increased risk of diabetes, obesity, neurocognitive disorders…”

Alexandre Feltz, Deputy Mayor and Physician, quoted by 20 minutes

For the first time in France, gynecologists, midwives and doctors working in Strasbourg can prescribe a very specific prescription to their patients. This gives them access to collective awareness workshops about the risks of these harmful substances. As a reminder, according to the WHO, “An endocrine disruptor is a substance or mixture of substances that alters the functions of the endocrine system and thereby causes adverse effects in an intact organism, in its offspring or in (sub)populations.”

But that’s not all, Strasbourg women also get free baskets of organic, local and seasonal fruits and vegetables. These foods will be given to them once a week during their pregnancy.


Photo: Shutterstock

Awareness sessions have already proven their worth in Strasbourg. They have already been tested, from July 2019 to December 2022, on a hundred future mothers in the medical-social centers of the Mother and Child Protection.

From September, this device, which is accessible to everyone and without income conditions, will be extensively tested for a year on 800 pregnant women (on 3,000 pregnancies per year). All Strasbourg women who carry life will therefore not be able to benefit from it.

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