Prenatal Phenol and Phthalate Exposures and Birth Outcomes

Abstract

BackgroundMany phthalates and phenols are hormonally active and are suspected to alter the course of development.ObjectiveWe investigated prenatal exposures to phthalate and phenol metabolites and their associations with body size measures of the infants at birth.MethodsWe measured 5 phenol and 10 phthalate urinary metabolites in a multiethnic cohort of 404 women in New York City during their third trimester of pregnancy and recorded size of infants at birth.ResultsMedian urinary concentrations were > 10 μg/L for 2 of 5 phenols and 6 of 10 phthalate monoester metabolites. Concentrations of low-molecular-weight phthalate monoesters (low-MWP) were approximately 5-fold greater than those of high-molecular-weight metabolites. Low-MWP metabolites had a positive association with gestational age [0.97 day gestational age per ln-biomarker; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.07–1.9 days, multivariate adjusted] and with head circumference. Higher prenatal exposures to 2,5-dichlorophenol (2,5-DCP) predicted lower birth weight in boys (−210 g average birth weight difference between the third tertile and first tertile of 2,5-DCP; 95% CI, 71–348 g). Higher maternal benzophenone-3 (BP3) concentrations were associated with a similar decrease in birth weight among girls but with greater birth weight in boys.ConclusionsWe observed a range of phthalate and phenol exposures during pregnancy in our population, but few were associated with birth size. The association of 2,5-DCP and BP3 with reduced or increased birth weight could be important in very early or small-size births. In addition, positive associations of urinary metabolites with some outcomes may be attributable partly to unresolved confounding with maternal anthropometric factors.

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

“…However, a closer look at these two papers fails to identify a discernable pattern. In the analyses of birth weight, Wolff et al (2008) report a significant inverse association for 2,5-dichlorophenol in boys but not in girls, and a positive association for benzophenone-3 among boys, but an inverse association among girls. Harley et al (2013) report inverse association between bisphenol A and body size at 9 years of age among girls, and no evidence of associations in boys.…”

“…Similarly, three Australian papers (Cullinan et al 2012(Cullinan et al , 2015a(Cullinan et al , 2015b were based on the same study, as were two publications from Puerto Rico (Watkins et al 2015;Aker et al 2016), and three papers by Wolff et al (2008Wolff et al ( , 2010Wolff et al ( , 2015.…”

“…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.…”

Concentrations of Bisphenol A and Seven Other Phenols in Pooled Sera from 3–11 Year Old Children: 2001–2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

“…In summary, although the degree of the exposure and the dominant exposure pathway(s) to environmental compounds likely depend on the age and associated lifestyle of each person, we found that exposure of 3-11 year old children to triclosan, benzophenone-3, methyl-, ethyl-, and propyl parabens, and the precursors of 2,4-dichlorophenol and 2,5-dichlorophenol, was prevalent in the United States in the early 2000s based on the detection of these phenols in at least more than half of the NHANES 2001-2002 serum pools. A few recent epidemiologic studies have suggested that prenatal and childhood exposure to some of these phenols (or their precursors) may be associated with altered neurodevelopment, obesity, and precocious puberty (11,26,(61)(62)(63)(64). Therefore, our findings confirming that these chemicals not only are present in U.S. children's urine (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14), but also could circulate in blood warrant additional research to further evaluate the potential effects on human health upon exposure to these compounds (or their precursors).…”

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.…”