You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 69, Issue 9
  • Association between maternal occupational exposure to organic solvents and congenital heart defects, National Birth Defects Prevention Study, 1997–2002

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Original article
Workplace
Original article
Association between maternal occupational exposure to organic solvents and congenital heart defects, National Birth Defects Prevention Study, 1997–2002
  1. Suzanne M Gilboa1,
  2. Tania A Desrosiers2,
  3. Christina Lawson3,
  4. Philip J Lupo4,
  5. Tiffany J Riehle-Colarusso1,
  6. Patricia A Stewart5,
  7. Edwin van Wijngaarden6,
  8. Martha A Waters3,
  9. Adolfo Correa1,7,
  10. National Birth Defects Prevention Study
  1. 1National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
  2. 2Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
  3. 3National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
  4. 4School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
  5. 5Stewart Exposure Assessments, LLC, Arlington, Virginia, USA
  6. 6Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York, USA
  7. 7University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Suzanne M Gilboa, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MS E-86, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA; sgilboa{at}cdc.gov

Abstract

Objective To examine the relation between congenital heart defects (CHDs) in offspring and estimated maternal occupational exposure to chlorinated solvents, aromatic solvents and Stoddard solvent during the period from 1 month before conception through the first trimester.

Methods The study population included mothers of infants with simple isolated CHDs and mothers of control infants who delivered from 1997 through 2002 and participated in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. Two methods to assess occupational solvent exposure were employed: an expert consensus-based approach and a literature-based approach. Multiple logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted ORs and 95% CIs for the association between solvent classes and CHDs.

Results 2951 control mothers and 2047 CHD case mothers were included. Using the consensus-based approach, associations were observed for exposure to any solvent and any chlorinated solvent with perimembranous ventricular septal defects (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.0 to 2.6 and OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.0 to 2.8, respectively). Using the literature-based approach, associations were observed for: any solvent exposure with aortic stenosis (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.1 to 4.1) and Stoddard solvent exposure with d-transposition of the great arteries (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.0 to 4.2), right ventricular outflow tract obstruction defects (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.1 to 3.3) and pulmonary valve stenosis (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.1 to 3.8).

Conclusions The authors found evidence of associations between occupational exposure to solvents and several types of CHDs. These results should be interpreted in light of the potential for misclassification of exposure.

  • Congenital heart defects
  • occupational exposure
  • solvents
  • general expertise
  • epidemiology
  • organ system
  • disease
  • disease type
  • congenital anomalies
  • methodology
  • speciality
  • female reproductive effects and adverse pregnancy outcomes
  • women
  • materials
  • exposures and occupational groups
  • solvents
  • shift work
  • cancer
  • exposure assessment
  • hygiene/occupational hygiene
  • retrospective exposure assessment
  • mortality studies
  • risk assessment
  • mental health
  • aviation medicine

https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2011-100536

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Additional appendices are published online only. To view these files please visit the journal online (http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2011-100536).

    • This research was presented at the 13th Annual National Birth Defects Prevention Network Meeting, National Harbor, Maryland, 8–10 March 2010, and the 50th Annual Teratology Society Meeting, Louisville, Kentucky, June 26–30 2010.

    • Funding This work was supported through cooperative agreements under PA 96043, PA 02081 and FOA DD09-001 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Centers for Birth Defects Research and Prevention participating in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. This work was also supported by contract 200-2000-08018 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

    • Disclaimer The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval Ethics approval was provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and all participating National Birth Defects Prevention Study centres.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.