Estimated Maternal Pesticide Exposure from Drinking Water and Heart Defects in Offspring

Jihye Kim, Michael D. Swartz, Peter H. Langlois, Paul A. Romitti, Peter Weyer, Laura E. Mitchell, Thomas J. Luben, Anushuya Ramakrishnan, Sadia Malik, Philip J. Lupo, Marcia L. Feldkamp, Robert E. Meyer, Jennifer J. Winston, Jennita Reefhuis, Sarah J. Blossom, Erin Bell, A. J. Agopian and The National Birth Defects Prevention Study
Additional contact information
Jihye Kim: Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Michael D. Swartz: Department of Biostatistics, University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Peter H. Langlois: Birth Defects Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Texas Department of State Health Services, Austin, TX 78714, USA
Paul A. Romitti: Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
Peter Weyer: Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
Laura E. Mitchell: Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Thomas J. Luben: National Center for Environmental Assessment, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
Anushuya Ramakrishnan: Community Epidemiology and Health Planning Unit, Cook County Department of Public Health, Oak Forest Health Center, Oak Forest, IL 60452, USA
Sadia Malik: Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas, Southwestern, Dallas, TX 75390, USA
Philip J. Lupo: Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Marcia L. Feldkamp: Division of Medical Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
Robert E. Meyer: Division of Public Health, Birth Defects Monitoring Program, State Center for Health Statistics, Raleigh, NC 27699, USA
Jennifer J. Winston: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Jennita Reefhuis: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, CDC, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA
Sarah J. Blossom: Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Little Rock, AR 72202, USA
Erin Bell: Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University at Albany School of Public Health, Albany, NY 12144, USA
A. J. Agopian: Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX 77030, USA
The National Birth Defects Prevention Study: Birth Defects Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Texas Department of State Health Services, Austin, TX 78714, USA

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: Our objective was to examine the relationship between estimated maternal exposure to pesticides in public drinking water and the risk of congenital heart defects (CHD). We used mixed-effects logistic regression to analyze data from 18,291 nonsyndromic cases with heart defects from the Texas Birth Defects Registry and 4414 randomly-selected controls delivered in Texas from 1999 through 2005. Water district-level pesticide exposure was estimated by linking each maternal residential address to the corresponding public water supply district’s measured atrazine levels. We repeated analyses among independent subjects from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS) (1620 nonsyndromic cases with heart defects and 1335 controls delivered from 1999 through 2005). No positive associations were observed between high versus low atrazine level and eight CHD subtypes or all included heart defects combined. These findings should be interpreted with caution, in light of potential misclassification and relatively large proportions of subjects with missing atrazine data. Thus, more consistent and complete monitoring and reporting of drinking water contaminants will aid in better understanding the relationships between pesticide water contaminants and birth defects.

Keywords: pesticide; congenital heart defect; public drinking water; Texas; birth defects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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