Maternal Residential Proximity to Hazardous Waste Sites and Risk for Selected Congenital Malformations

Using data from two population‐based case‐control studies, we investigated whether maternal residential proximity to hazardous waste sites increased the risk for neural tube defects, conotruncal heart defects, and oral cleft defects in California. We obtained a residential history by interview for mothers of 507 neural tube defect cases (82.7% of eligible) and their 517 controls (84.6%); and 201 heart cases (84.4%), 439 cleft cases (82.2%), and their 455 controls (72.1%). We identified the locations of 764 inactive hazardous waste sites and systematically collected information on site‐related contamination for the subset of 105 National Priority List sites. After controlling for several potential confounders, we found little or no increased risk for maternal residence in a census tract containing a site [odds ratio (OR) = 0.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.7–1.3 for neural tube defects; OR = 1.3, 95% CI = 0.8–2.1 for heart cases; OR = 1.2, 95% CI = 0.8–1.8 for clefts], but elevated risks for neural tube defects (OR = 2.1, 95% CI = 0.6–7.6) and heart defects (OR = 4.2, 95% CI = 0.7–26.5) for maternal residence within 1/4 mile of a National Priority List site. Furthermore, we observed elevated ORs (≥2.0) for neural tube defects and heart defects in association with maternal residence within 1 mile of National Priority List sites containing selected chemical contaminants. Among controls, only 0.6% and 4.4% lived within 1/4 mile and 1 mile of a National Priority List site, respectively, resulting in imprecision in risk estimation.

[1]  H Checkoway,et al.  Bias due to misclassification in the estimation of relative risk. , 1977, American journal of epidemiology.

[2]  C. Shy,et al.  Agricultural chemical use and congenital cleft lip and/or palate. , 1981, Archives of environmental health.

[3]  J. Schulman,et al.  Quality control of birth defect registry data: a case study. , 1993, Public health reports.

[4]  P. Brown,et al.  Race, class, and environmental health: a review and systematization of the literature. , 1995, Environmental research.

[5]  J A Stolwijk,et al.  Risk of congenital malformations associated with proximity to hazardous waste sites. , 1992, American journal of epidemiology.

[6]  R. Mccurdy,et al.  Chemicals, birth defects and stillbirths in New Brunswick: associations with agricultural activity. , 1988, CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne.

[7]  A health study of two communities near the Stringfellow Waste Disposal site. , 1988, Archives of environmental health.

[8]  V. Burse,et al.  Human exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls at toxic waste sites: investigations in the United States. , 1988, Archives of environmental health.

[9]  J. Logue,et al.  Cancer and birth defects near the Drake Superfund site, Pennsylvania. , 1984, Archives of environmental health.

[10]  S. Goldberg,et al.  Cardiac teratogenesis of trichloroethylene and dichloroethylene in a mammalian model. , 1990, Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

[11]  P. Baghurst,et al.  Congenital malformations and maternal drinking water supply in rural South Australia: a case-control study. , 1984, American journal of epidemiology.

[12]  G. Shaw,et al.  Exposure assessment in epidemiologic studies of birth defects by industrial hygiene review of maternal interviews. , 1994, American journal of industrial medicine.

[13]  A. Craig.  Catalog of Teratogenic Agents , 1977, British Journal of Cancer.

[14]  K. Rosenman,et al.  Central nervous system malformations in relation to two polyvinyl chloride production facilities. , 1989, Archives of environmental health.

[15]  G. Shaw,et al.  Maternal Water Consumption During Pregnancy and Congenital Cardiac Anomalies , 1990, Epidemiology.

[16]  P. Holmberg,et al.  Congenital defects of the central nervous system and occupational factors during pregnancy. A case-referent study. , 1980, American journal of industrial medicine.

[17]  M. Fulcomer,et al.  Public drinking water contamination and birth outcomes. , 1995, American journal of epidemiology.

[18]  S. Aymé,et al.  Comparison of job demands, control and psychosomatic complaints at different career stages of managers in Finland and the United States. , 1992 .

[19]  G. Shaw,et al.  Orofacial clefts, parental cigarette smoking, and transforming growth factor-alpha gene variants. , 1996, American journal of human genetics.

[20]  G M Shaw,et al.  Birth defects monitoring in California: a resource for epidemiological research. , 1991, Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology.

[21]  M. Hendrix,et al.  Trichloroethylene: A Cardiac Teratogen in Developing Chick Embryos , 1988, Pediatric Research.

[22]  J. Little,et al.  Epidemiology and control of neural tube defects , 1993 .

[23]  L. Goldman,et al.  Low Birth Weight, Prematurity and Birth Defects in Children Living Near the Hazardous Waste Site, Love Canal , 1985 .

[24]  S. Goldberg,et al.  An association of human congenital cardiac malformations and drinking water contaminants. , 1990, Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

[25]  K. Kurppa,et al.  Screening for occupational exposures and congenital malformations Preliminary results from a nationwide case-referent study , 1983 .

[26]  P. A. Doherty,et al.  Congenital malformations induced by infusion of sodium cyanide in the golden hamster. , 1982, Toxicology and applied pharmacology.

[27]  G. Shaw,et al.  Maternal periconceptional use of multivitamins and reduced risk for conotruncal heart defects and limb deficiencies among offspring. , 1995, American journal of medical genetics.

[28]  G. Shaw,et al.  PERICONCEPTIONAL VITAMIN USE, DIETARY FOLATE, AND THE OCCURRENCE OF NEURAL TUBE DEFECTS , 1995, Epidemiology.