Combined Effects of Prenatal Exposures to Environmental Chemicals on Birth Weight

Eva Govarts, Sylvie Remy, Liesbeth Bruckers, Elly Den Hond, Isabelle Sioen, Vera Nelen, Willy Baeyens, Tim S Nawrot, Ilse Loots, Nick Van Larebeke and Greet Schoeters
Additional contact information
Eva Govarts: Environmental Risk and Health, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), 2400 Mol, Belgium
Sylvie Remy: Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Antwerp, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
Liesbeth Bruckers: Interuniversity Institute for Biostatistics and Statistical Bioinformatics, Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
Elly Den Hond: Environmental Risk and Health, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), 2400 Mol, Belgium
Isabelle Sioen: Department of Public Health, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; FWO Research Foundation, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Vera Nelen: Department of Health, Provincial Institute for Hygiene, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
Willy Baeyens: Department of Analytical, Environmental and Geochemistry (AEGC), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1040 Brussels, Belgium
Tim S Nawrot: Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
Ilse Loots: Department Sociology, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, University of Antwerp, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
Nick Van Larebeke: Department of Analytical, Environmental and Geochemistry (AEGC), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1040 Brussels, Belgium
Greet Schoeters: Environmental Risk and Health, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), 2400 Mol, Belgium

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-19

Abstract: Prenatal chemical exposure has been frequently associated with reduced fetal growth by single pollutant regression models although inconsistent results have been obtained. Our study estimated the effects of exposure to single pollutants and mixtures on birth weight in 248 mother-child pairs. Arsenic, copper, lead, manganese and thallium were measured in cord blood, cadmium in maternal blood, methylmercury in maternal hair, and five organochlorines, two perfluorinated compounds and diethylhexyl phthalate metabolites in cord plasma. Daily exposure to particulate matter was modeled and averaged over the duration of gestation. In single pollutant models, arsenic was significantly associated with reduced birth weight. The effect estimate increased when including cadmium, and mono-(2-ethyl-5-carboxypentyl) phthalate (MECPP) co-exposure. Combining exposures by principal component analysis generated an exposure factor loaded by cadmium and arsenic that was associated with reduced birth weight. MECPP induced gender specific effects. In girls, the effect estimate was doubled with co-exposure of thallium, PFOS, lead, cadmium, manganese, and mercury, while in boys, the mixture of MECPP with cadmium showed the strongest association with birth weight. In conclusion, birth weight was consistently inversely associated with exposure to pollutant mixtures. Chemicals not showing significant associations at single pollutant level contributed to stronger effects when analyzed as mixtures.

Keywords: endocrine disruptors; mixtures; principal component analysis; regression analysis; birth outcome; epidemiology; biomonitoring; cord blood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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