Exposure to Phthalates and Phenols during Pregnancy and Offspring Size at Birth

Abstract

Background: Data concerning the effects of prenatal exposures to phthalates and phenols on fetal growth are limited in humans. Previous findings suggest possible effects of some phenols on male birth weight.Objective: Our aim was to assess the relationships between prenatal exposures to phthalates and phenols and fetal growth among male newborns.Methods: We conducted a case–control study on male malformations of the genitalia nested in two French mother–child cohorts with recruitment between 2002 and 2006. We measured, in maternal urinary samples collected between 6 and 30 gestational weeks, the concentrations (micrograms per liter) of 9 phenol (n = 191 pregnant women) and 11 phthalate metabolites (n = 287). Weight, length, and head circumference at birth were collected from maternity records. Statistical analyses were corrected for the oversampling of malformation cases.Results: Adjusted birth weight decreased by 77 g [95% confidence interval (CI): –129, –25] and by 49 g (95% CI: –86, –13) in association with a 1-unit increase in ln-transformed 2,4-dichlorophenol (DCP) and 2,5-DCP urinary concentrations, respectively. Benzophenone-3 (BP3) ln-transformed concentrations were positively associated with weight (26 g; 95% CI: –2, 54) and head circumference at birth (0.1 cm; 95% CI: 0.0, 0.2). Head circumference increased by 0.3 cm (95% CI: 0.0, 0.7) in association with a 1-unit increase in ln-transformed BPA concentration. For phthalate metabolites there was no evidence of monotonic associations with birth weight.Conclusions: Consistent with findings of a previous study, we observed evidence of an inverse association of 2,5-DCP and a positive association of BP3 with male birth weight.

Systematic review of the literature on triclosan and health outcomes in humans

“…Tier 2 included 13 publications. Twelve of those publications (Wolff et al , 2010(Wolff et al , 2015Philippat et al 2012Philippat et al , 2014Watkins et al 2015;Aker et al 2016;Ashley-Martin et al 2016;Buckley et al 2016;Lassen et al 2016;Smarr et al 2017;Geer et al 2017) were based on seven different cohorts assembled in France, Puerto Rico, Denmark, Canada, and various parts of the US. One paper ) presented a case-control study that used incident cases identified among members of a French cohort.…”

“…Of the 43 studies, 24 were conducted in North America (Wolff et al , 2010(Wolff et al , 2015Clayton et al 2011;You et al 2011;Buttke et al 2012;Savage et al 2012Savage et al , 2014Koeppe et al 2013;Lankester et al 2013;Buser et al 2014;Spanier et al 2014;Adgent and Rogan 2015;Li et al 2015;Ihde et al 2015;Shiue 2015aShiue , 2015bVelez et al 2015;Ashley-Martin et al 2016;Buckley et al 2016;Poole et al 2016;Scinicariello and Buser 2016;Smarr et al 2017;Geer et al 2017), two studies in the Caribbean (Watkins et al 2015;Aker et al 2016), 10 studies in Europe (Allmyr et al 2009;Chevrier et al 2012;Philippat et al 2012Philippat et al , 2014Bertelsen et al 2013;Buhl et al 2014;Den Hond et al 2013, 2015Geens et al 2015;Lassen et al 2016), four in Asia (Chen et al 2013;Wang et al 2015;Xue et al 2015;Zhu et al 2016), and three in Australia (Cullinan et al 2012(Cullinan et al , 2015a…”

“…For example, Wolff et al (2008) and Geer et al (2017) reported the associations between prenatal TCS and birth weight in boys and girls adjusted for sex, Philippat et al (2012) and Philippat et al (2014) excluded girls from their analyses, and Lassen et al (2016) reported findings separately for boys and girls.…”

Chemical and non-chemical stressors affecting childhood obesity: a systematic scoping review

“…151 Other studies have reported similar results in spite of weak statistical evidence that phthalates increase a child's weight. [152][153][154] While most phthalate research has focused on children in the United States, one cross-sectional study was conducted in three primary and three middle schools in China. The Chinese researchers found that, when age and sex were included in the model, MEHP and MEP were positively associated with BMI and WC.…”

Using the Health Belief Model to Illustrate Factors That Influence Risk Assessment during Pregnancy and Implications for Prenatal Education about Endocrine Disruptors

“…A questionnaire was designed that included characteristics of a baby either at or near birth or well after birth, or that did not describe a particular life stage. We included characteristics that have been suggested by human research to be affected by different EDCs, as indicated by asterisks on Table II -namely: incomplete masculinization of boy children (Swan et al, 2005;Marsee et al, 2006); obesity (Eng et al, 2013); asthma (Vaidya & Kulkarni, 2012); intelligence (Cho et al, 2010); behavior (Kim et al, 2009); fertility (Cantonwine et al, 2013); and birth weight (Philippat et al, 2012). The average percentage of women who agreed that characteristics around birth defined the healthy baby was 69%, compared with 40% agreeing that later characteristics applied, and 56% agreeing that characteristics without a defined time applied.…”