Christine McCullum-Gomez: Intergenerational Effects of Toxic Exposure on Health Uncovered
Christine McCullum-Gomez, Researcher, Consultant, Speaker, Writer at Sustainable RDN, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (February 17, 2026)
A single exposure to a toxic fungicide during pregnancy can increase the risk of disease for 20 subsequent generations — with inherited health problems worsening many generations after exposure.
Those are the findings of a new Washington State University study of rats that expands the understanding of how long the intergenerational effects of toxic exposure may last, as they are passed down through alterations in reproductive cells.
The study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was co-authored by WSU biologist Michael Skinner, who has been studying this ‘epigenetic transgenerational inheritance’ of disease for two decades.
The research has implications for deciphering rising disease rates among humans, Skinner said, suggesting that the reason someone has cancer today may be rooted in an ancestor’s exposure to toxins decades earlier. On the other hand, epigenetics research has also unearthed potential treatments by identifying measurable biomarkers for diseases that could eventually spur preventative treatments.
‘This study really does say that this is not going to go away,’ said Skinner, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences and founding director of the Center for Reproductive Biology. ‘We need to do something about it. We can use epigenetics to move us away from reactionary medicine and toward preventative medicine.’ ”
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