Reproductive outcome among female hairdressers

Abstract

Background:Working as a hairdresser involves exposure to a variety of chemical agents.Aims:To estimate the risk of such exposure in relation to reproductive outcome.Methods:A cohort of hairdressers, certified in Sweden from 1970 onwards, and a referent cohort of women from the general population were established and linked to the Swedish Medical Birth Register for the period 1973 to 1994. In the cohort of hairdressers 3706 women gave birth to 6960 infants. The corresponding numbers among the referents were 3462 and 6629. Questionnaires were sent to all hairdressers to obtain individual exposure data. The response rate was 65%.Results:Compared with the referents, the hairdressers more often gave birth to infants that were small for gestational age (SGA). In addition, a higher fraction of the infants born to a hairdresser had a major malformation (2.8%v2.1%). Frequent permanent waving and spraying tended to be associated with increased risk of having an SGA infant, whereas no clear association could be seen between the individual exposure assessments and malformation risk.Conclusions:Results indicated that hairdressers have a slight increased risk of having intrauterine growth retarded infants and infants with major malformation compared with women from the general population. However, no clear associations were seen between individual exposure assessments and these outcomes.

Reproductive outcomes among hairdressers

“…The findings for low birthweight and small for gestational age in our study are partly in agreement with previous findings (21,22). In the study from The Netherlands, the authors stated that the risk had decreased over time, and they thought that this decrease may be a result of exchanging the toxic agents in the beauty salons for less hazardous ones (21).…”

“…About 25% of the hairdressers in our study were also included in a former study of Swedish hairdressers (22). When the analyses in our study were restricted to the hairdressers who were not included in the former study, the results did not change more than marginally.…”

“…However, the numbers, especially for malformations, were very low, and the increased risk estimates were far from statistically significant. Another cohort study that consisted of women certified at the major hairdressing schools in Sweden also showed an increased frequency of low birthweight and major malformations among infants born to these women (22), but for a large proportion it was not known if they actually worked as a hairdresser during pregnancy.…”

Risk of cryptorchidism and hypospadias among boys of maternal hairdressers – a Danish population-based cohort study

“…Some studies report that female hairdressers have an increased risk of having children with major malformations such as hypospadias (15)(16)(17) while others find no support for an increased risk (18)(19)(20). Thus, studies have been conflicting, and -so far -no health problems related to reproduction and fetal development have been identified among hairdressers (21).…”

“…Although hairdressers as a group displayed a 2.7-fold increase in risk, this did not reach statistical significance (33). Two Swedish cohort studies have assessed the reproductive outcomes of hairdressers and found a relative risk of 1.3 of major malformations, including hypospadias, in a study from 2002 but found no association in a more recent study from 2005 (17,18).…”