| Developmental Dental Aberrations After the Dioxin Accident in Seveso Satu Alaluusua,1,2 Pier Calderara,1 Pier Mario Gerthoux,3 Pirjo-Liisa Lukinmaa,4 Outi Kovero,5 Larry Needham,6 Donald G. Patterson Jr.,6 Jouko Tuomisto,7 and Paolo Mocarelli3 1Department of Pedodontics and Orthodontics, Institute of Dentistry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; 2Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Diseases, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland; 3Department of Laboratory Medicine, Desio Hospital, University of Milano, Bicocca, Italy; 4Department of Oral Pathology, Institute of Dentistry, University of Helsinki, and Department of Pathology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland; 5Department of Radiology, Institute of Dentistry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; 6Division of Laboratory Sciences, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 7Department of Environmental Health, National Public Health Institute, and Department of Public Health and General Practice, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland Abstract
Children's developing teeth may be sensitive to environmental dioxins, and in animal studies developing teeth are one of the most sensitive targets of toxicity of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) . Twenty-five years after the dioxin accident in Seveso, Italy, 48 subjects from the contaminated areas (zones A and B) and in patches lightly contaminated (zone R) were recruited for the examination of dental and oral aberrations. Subjects were randomly invited from those exposed in their childhood and for whom frozen serum samples were available. The subjects were frequency matched with 65 subjects from the surrounding non-ABR zone for age, sex, and education. Concentrations of TCDD in previously analyzed plasma samples (zone ABR subjects only) ranged from 23 to 26,000 ng/kg in serum lipid. Ninety-three percent (25 of 27) of the subjects who had developmental enamel defects had been < 5 years of age at the time of the accident. The prevalence of defects in this age group was 42% (15 of 36) in zone ABR subjects and 26% (10 of 39) in zone non-ABR subjects, correlating with serum TCDD levels (p = 0.016) . Hypodontia was seen in 12.5% (6 of 48) and 4.6% (3 of 65) of the zone ABR and non-ABR subjects, respectively, also correlating with serum TCDD level (p = 0.05) . In conclusion, developmental dental aberrations were associated with childhood exposure to TCDD. In contrast, dental caries and periodontal disease, both infectious in nature, and oral pigmentation and salivary flow rate were not related to the exposure. The results support our hypothesis that dioxins can interfere with human organogenesis. Key words: developmental enamel defect, dioxin, hypodontia, hypomineralization, hypoplasia, Seveso, TCDD, teeth. Environ Health Perspect 112:1313-1318 (2004) . doi:10.1289/ehp.6920 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 1 July 2004]
Address correspondence to S. Alaluusua, Department of Pedodontics and Orthodontics, Institute of Dentistry, P.O. Box 41, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. Telephone: 358-9-19127314. Fax: 358-9-19127266. E-mail: satu.alaluusua@helsinki.fi This work was supported by the European Commission (QLK4-1999-01446) , Region Lombardia, Italy (2896) , and the Research Program for Environmental Health, Academy of Finland (contract 203395) . Planmeca Oy, Helsinki, Finland, provided us with a dental unit. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 17 December 2003 ; accepted 1 July 2004.
The full version of this article is available for free in HTML or PDF formats. |
