Plausibility of the findings reported in ‘Prenatal exposure to glycol ethers and cryptorchidism and hypospadias: a nested case–control study’ by Warembourg et al

Concerning the plausibility of the findings reported in ’Prenatal exposure to glycol ethers and cryptorchidism and hypospadias: a nested case–control study' by Smet and Kelsey: authors' response

“…Smet and Kelsey1 questioned the validity of our findings regarding the high detection rate of methoxyacetic acid (MAA) we observed in our population despite the restriction in use of its precursors in Europe. First, human biomonitoring studies on glycol ether (GE) exposure in the non-occupational context are very few but other recent studies have also reported a high detection rate of MAA in the European general population in 2007–2009: MAA was detected in 99% and 100% of urine samples with a median concentration of 0.05 mg/L and 0.11 mg/L in a German2 and a French population,3 respectively.…”