Prenatal Exposure to Ambient Pesticides and Preterm Birth and Term Low Birthweight in Agricultural Regions of California
by
Chenxiao Ling 1
, Zeyan Liew 1, Ondine S. Von Ehrenstein 1,2, Julia E. Heck 1, Andrew S. Park 1, Xin Cui 1, Myles Cockburn 3,4,5, Jun Wu 6 and Beate Ritz 1,*
Chenxiao Ling 1, Zeyan Liew 1, Ondine S. Von Ehrenstein 1,2, Julia E. Heck 1, Andrew S. Park 1, Xin Cui 1, Myles Cockburn 3,4,5, Jun Wu 6 and Beate Ritz 1,*
1
Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
2
Department of Community Health Sciences, Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
3
Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
4
Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
5
Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
6
Program in Public Health, Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Toxics 2018, 6(3), 41; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics6030041
Received: 24 June 2018 / Revised: 17 July 2018 / Accepted: 19 July 2018 / Published: 21 July 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Prenatal Exposure to Toxics and Risks in Infants)
Findings from studies of prenatal exposure to pesticides and adverse birth outcomes have been equivocal so far. We examined prenatal exposure to agricultural pesticides in relation to preterm birth and term low birthweight, respectively, in children born between 1998 and 2010, randomly selected from California birth records. We estimated residential exposure to agriculturally applied pesticides within 2 km of residential addresses at birth by pregnancy trimester for 17 individual pesticides and three chemical classes (organophosphates, pyrethroids, and carbamates). Among maternal addresses located within 2 km of any agricultural pesticide application, we identified 24,693 preterm and 220,297 term births, and 4412 term low birthweight and 194,732 term normal birthweight infants. First or second trimester exposure to individual pesticides (e.g., glyphosates, paraquat, imidacloprid) or exposure to 2 or more pesticides in the three chemical classes were associated with a small increase (3–7%) in risk for preterm birth; associations were stronger for female offspring. We did not find associations between term low birthweight and exposure to pesticides other than myclobutanil (OR: 1.11; 95% CI: 1.04–1.20) and possibly the pyrethroids class. Our improved exposure assessment revealed that first and second trimester exposure to pesticides is associated with preterm delivery but is rarely linked with term low birthweight.
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Keywords:
agricultural pesticides; residential proximity; adverse birth outcomes; preterm birth; low birthweight; pregnancy
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MDPI and ACS Style
Ling, C.; Liew, Z.; Von Ehrenstein, O.S.; Heck, J.E.; Park, A.S.; Cui, X.; Cockburn, M.; Wu, J.; Ritz, B. Prenatal Exposure to Ambient Pesticides and Preterm Birth and Term Low Birthweight in Agricultural Regions of California. Toxics 2018, 6, 41.
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