Journal article
Maternal occupational exposure to ionizing radiation and major structural birth defects
Birth defects research. A Clinical and molecular teratology, Vol.103(4), pp.243-254
04/2015
DOI: 10.1002/bdra.23340
PMCID: PMC5937122
PMID: 25820072
Abstract
Background
Ionizing radiation (IR) is known to be carcinogenic and mutagenic, but little is known about the association between maternal occupational exposure to IR and birth defects.
Methods
We studied 38,009 mothers who participated in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study and delivered between 1997 and 2009. We assessed odds ratios [ORs] for the association between maternal occupations with potential exposure to IR and 39 birth defects.
Results
We observed significant odds ratios (ORs) for isolated hydrocephaly (adjusted OR [AOR], 2.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1–4.2), isolated anotia/microtia (AOR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.0–4.0), isolated colonic atresia (crude OR, 7.5; 95% CI, 2.5–22.3), isolated omphalocele (AOR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.1–4.6) and isolated anencephaly (crude OR, 0.23; 95% CI, 0.06–0.94). We also observed a nonsignificant OR for birth defects in aggregate (AOR, 2.0; 95% CI, 0.9–4.6) among mothers with potential occupational exposure to fluoroscopy.
Conclusion
We assessed 39 birth defects, observing that maternal occupations with potential exposure to IR were associated with a significantly increased risk for 4 birth defects and a significantly protected risk for 1 birth defect. These results should be interpreted cautiously because our measurement of exposure is qualitative, some of these associations may be due to occupational exposures that are correlated with IR and some may be due to chance. However, these findings serve as the first evaluation of these relationships in a large study and may be useful for generating hypotheses for future studies. Birth Defects Research (Part A) 103:243–254, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Maternal occupational exposure to ionizing radiation and major structural birth defects
- Creators
- Hyeyeun Lim - University of Texas School of Public Health, UTHealthA.J Agopian - University of Texas School of Public Health, UTHealthLawrence W Whitehead - University of Texas School of Public Health, UTHealthCharles W Beasley - University of Texas School of Medicine, UTHealthPeter H Langlois - Birth Defects Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Texas Department of State Health ServicesRobert J Emery - University of Texas School of Public Health, UTHealthDorothy Kim Waller - University of Texas School of Public Health, UTHealthNational Birth Defects Prevention Study
- Contributors
- Paul A Romitti (Contributor) - University of Iowa, Epidemiology
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Birth defects research. A Clinical and molecular teratology, Vol.103(4), pp.243-254
- DOI
- 10.1002/bdra.23340
- PMID
- 25820072
- PMCID
- PMC5937122
- NLM abbreviation
- Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol
- ISSN
- 1542-0752
- eISSN
- 1542-0760
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 12
- Grant note
- Pilot Project Funding from Grant No.2T42OH008421 from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)/Center for Disease Control and Prevention to the Southwest Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, a NIOSH Education and Research Center and a grant funded by NISOH (R03OH010315)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/2015
- Academic Unit
- Epidemiology; Biostatistics
- Record Identifier
- 9984214842902771
Metrics
17 Record Views