Prenatal Insecticide Exposures and Birth Weight and Length among an Urban Minority Cohort

Abstract

We reported previously that insecticide exposures were widespread among minority women in New York City during pregnancy and that levels of the organophosphate chlorpyrifos in umbilical cord plasma were inversely associated with birth weight and length. Here we expand analyses to include additional insecticides (the organophosphate diazinon and the carbamate propoxur), a larger sample size (n = 314 mother–newborn pairs), and insecticide measurements in maternal personal air during pregnancy as well as in umbilical cord plasma at delivery. Controlling for potential confounders, we found no association between maternal personal air insecticide levels and birth weight, length, or head circumference. For each log unit increase in cord plasma chlorpyrifos levels, birth weight decreased by 42.6 g [95% confidence interval (CI), −81.8 to −3.8, p = 0.03] and birth length decreased by 0.24 cm (95% CI, −0.47 to −0.01, p = 0.04). Combined measures of (ln)cord plasma chlorpyrifos and diazinon (adjusted for relative potency) were also inversely associated with birth weight and length (p < 0.05). Birth weight averaged 186.3 g less (95% CI, −375.2 to −45.5) among newborns with the highest compared with lowest 26% of exposure levels (p = 0.01). Further, the associations between birth weight and length and cord plasma chlorpyrifos and diazinon were highly significant (p ≤ 0.007) among newborns born before the 2000–2001 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory actions to phase out residential use of these insecticides. Among newborns born after January 2001, exposure levels were substantially lower, and no association with fetal growth was apparent (p > 0.8). The propoxur metabolite 2-isopropoxyphenol in cord plasma was inversely associated with birth length, a finding of borderline significance (p = 0.05) after controlling for chlorpyrifos and diazinon. Results indicate that prenatal chlorpyrifos exposures have impaired fetal growth among this minority cohort and that diazinon exposures may have contributed to the effects. Findings support recent regulatory action to phase out residential uses of the insecticides.

Exposição a agrotóxicos e eventos adversos na gravidez no Sul do Brasil, 1996-2000

“…Por outro lado, não foi observado um padrão similar em relação ao baixo peso ao nascer, o qual tem sido associado com a exposição a agrotóxicos, tanto no Brasil 23 , como em outros países 15,29,30,31 .…”

Probabilistic assessment of chlorpyrifos exposure to rice farmers in Viet Nam

“…Low-level exposure to chlorpyrifos has caused adverse developmental effects in human pregnancies, such as low birth weight and reduced head circumference. 7,8 Chlorpyrifos is also considered to be an endocrine disrupting compound, 9 and some recent studies have shown an association between chlorpyrifos exposure and both lung and prostate cancer. 10,11 Exposure assessment using probabilistic techniques have been shown to be an effective tool in environmental health risk assessment, in which the exposure values are presented in cumulative probability distributions rather than the traditional single-point exposure estimate.…”

Residential insecticide usage in northern California homes with young children

“…Pesticide exposure has been associated with increased risks of childhood cancer (Daniels et al, 1997;Reynolds et al, 2002); child neurodevelopment (Rosas and Eskenazi, 2008); fetal growth outcomes (Arbuckle and Sever, 1998;Whyatt et al, 2004); adult cancers (Alavanja et al, 2004) such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia, and breast cancer; and neurological effects (Sanborn et al, 2007). Several nationaland regional-scale studies have been conducted, demonstrating that up to 90% of US households used pesticides in their house, garden, or yard, and more than half of the products applied were insecticides (Savage et al, 1981;Davis et al, 1992;Whitmore et al, 1994;Adgate et al, 2000;Colt et al, 2004).…”