Low birth weight and residential proximity to PCB-contaminated waste sites.

Abstract

Previous investigations have shown that women exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are at increased risk of giving birth to an infant with low birth weight (< 2,500 g), and that this relationship is stronger for male than for female infants. We have tested the hypothesis that residents in a zip code that contains a PCB hazardous waste site or abuts a body of water contaminated with PCBs are at increased risk of giving birth to a low-birth-weight baby. We used the birth registry of the New York State Vital Statistics to identify all births between 1994 and 2000 in New York State except for New York City. This registry provides information on the infant, mother, and father together with the zip code of the mother's residence. The 865 state Superfund sites, the 86 National Priority List sites, and the six Areas of Concern in New York were characterized regarding whether or not they contain PCBs as a major contaminant. We identified 187 zip codes containing or abutting PCB-contaminated sites, and these zip codes were the residences of 24.5% of the 945,077 births. The birth weight in the PCB zip codes was on average 21.6 g less than in other zip codes (p < 0.001). Because there are many other risk factors for low birth weight, we have adjusted for these using a logistic regression model for these confounders. After adjusting for sex of the infant, mother's age, race, weight, height, education, income, marital status, and smoking, there was still a statistically significant 6% increased risk of giving birth to a male infant of low birth weight. These observations support the hypothesis that living in a zip code near a PCBcontaminated site poses a risk of exposure and giving birth to an infant of low birth weight.

Prenatal exposure to PCDDs/PCDFs and dioxin-like PCBs in relation to birth weight

“…However, these associations have not been demonstrated in other studies (Rogan et al, 1986;Dar et al, 1992;Grandjean et al, 2001;Longnecker et al, 2005;Weisskopf et al, 2005;Baibergenova et al, 2003). Higher PCBs exposure correlated with higher birth weight in fish consumers from the Green Bay, Wisconsin, area (Dar et al, 1992).…”

“…There were few results reported gender difference, they frequently indicated a stronger negative effect on the birth weight among male infants (Rylander et al, 1996;Baibergenova et al, 2003;Sonneborn et al, 2008;Hertz-Picciotto et al, 2005;Vartiainen et al, 1998). Previous reports have indicated that increased maternal serum PCBs levels are associated with reduced birth weight in male infants and have suggested a greater susceptibility of male conceptuses, either in the fetal or embryonic period (Sonneborn et al, 2008;Hertz-Picciotto et al, 2005).…”

“…Thus, reported results on the relationship between birth weight and the levels of PCDDs/PCDFs and DL-PCBs are currently limited and inconsistent. Furthermore, some studies have reported a difference between genders with regard to the effects of PCBs and PCDDs/PCDFs on birth outcomes (Rylander et al, 1996;Baibergenova et al, 2003;Sonneborn et al, 2008;Hertz-Picciotto et al, 2005;Vartiainen et al, 1998).…”

Maternal contamination with PCBs and reproductive outcomes in an Australian population

“…Some evidence about mother's residence near hazardous waste sites increasing the risk of having low birth weight births has been reported (Baibergenova et al, 2003), although in these studies there is the possibility of exposure to other chemicals or risk factors.…”

“…Low birth weight was defined as any baby with a birth weight less than 2500 g. However, birth weight and gestational age are usually positively correlated (Baibergenova et al, 2003). Thus, in order to be able to correct for prematurity, the ''small for gestational age'' outcome variable was also used.…”