Pregnancy is a delicate period when the body is more vulnerable to outside influences, including chemicals found in food, packaging, and personal care products.
These substances, known as xenobiotics, enter the body in small amounts through what we eat, drink, and use every day.
While many are considered safe, new research suggests they may play a hidden role in pregnancy complications such as high blood pressure and preeclampsia.
Traditionally, blood samples have been used to measure chemical exposure. But blood tests are invasive and not ideal for frequent monitoring, especially during pregnancy.
Saliva, on the other hand, offers a much easier way to check what’s happening inside the body.
It can be collected without needles, at low cost, and as often as needed. Despite this, saliva has rarely been used in large studies of environmental exposures during pregnancy.
A new international study, published in the International Journal of Oral Science, has shown just how powerful saliva analysis can be.
Researchers from Singapore, the U.S., and Australia analyzed saliva samples from 80 pregnant women between 24 and 34 weeks of pregnancy.
Using advanced mass spectrometry, they identified over 700 natural metabolites produced by the body and 125 chemical exposures linked to diet, food additives, or packaging.
Altogether, they mapped more than 18,000 connections between environmental chemicals and the body’s metabolic processes.
One striking finding was a cluster of changes linked to the way the body processes tyrosine, a building block for stress-related hormones such as dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine.
Women exposed to certain chemicals—including toluene, styrene, quinoline, and coumarin—had much higher levels of these stress hormones. These compounds are common in packaging materials and food flavorings.
The team discovered that these chemicals may interfere with an enzyme called monoamine oxidase (MAO), which normally helps regulate hormone levels. When MAO is disrupted, stress hormones can build up, putting women at greater risk of hypertension and preeclampsia.
To strengthen their findings, the researchers examined saliva from another group of women and found that those with preeclampsia indeed had higher levels of these chemicals compared with healthy pregnancies.
Dr. Preethi Balan, the study’s lead author, said that saliva provides a “unique molecular snapshot” of how the body interacts with its environment. She emphasized that everyday chemicals thought to be harmless may, in fact, play a bigger role in maternal health than previously realized.
This study highlights saliva as a powerful tool for tracking environmental exposures in pregnancy.
Unlike blood tests, saliva collection is simple, painless, and repeatable, making it suitable for long-term monitoring. If widely adopted, saliva testing could act as an early warning system for complications like preeclampsia, helping doctors step in sooner.
The results also raise questions for regulators and the food industry, since many of the chemicals identified are preventable exposures. Larger studies are needed to confirm the findings, but this research points toward new ways of protecting both mothers and babies from the hidden risks of modern life.
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