| Association of In Utero Organochlorine Pesticide Exposure and
Fetal Growth and Length of Gestation in an Agricultural Population Laura Fenster,1 Brenda Eskenazi,2 Meredith Anderson,3 Asa
Bradman,2 Kim Harley,2 Hedy Hernandez,4,5 Alan
Hubbard,2 and Dana B. Barr6 1California Department of Health Services, Division of Environmental
and Occupational Disease Control, Richmond, California, USA; 2Center
for Children’s Environmental Health Research, School of Public Health,
University of California, Berkeley, California, USA; 3Impact Assessment,
Inc., Richmond, California, USA; 4Natividad Medical Center Foundation,
Salinas, California, USA; 5Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers
and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS), Salinas, California, USA; 6National
Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Atlanta, Georgia, USA Abstract
From 1940 through the 1970s, organochlorine compounds were widely used as insecticides in the United States. Thereafter, their use was severely restricted after recognition of their persistence in the environment, their toxicity in animals, and their potential for endocrine disruption. Although substantial evidence exists for the fetal toxicity of organochlorines in animals, information on human reproductive effects is conflicting. We investigated whether infants’ length of gestation, birth weight, and crown-heel length were associated with maternal serum levels of 11 different organochlorine pesticides: p,p´-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (p,p´-DDT) , p,p´-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p´-DDE) , o,p´-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (o,p´-DDT) , hexachlorobenzene (HCB) , β-hexachlorocyclohexane (β-HCCH) ,  -hexachlorocyclohexane (-HCCH) , dieldrin, heptachlor epoxide, oxychlordane, trans-nonachlor, and mirex. Our subjects were a birth cohort of 385 low-income Latinas living in the Salinas Valley, an agricultural community in California. We observed no adverse associations between maternal serum organochlorine levels and birth weight or crown-heel length. We found decreased length of gestation with increasing levels of lipid-adjusted HCB (adjusted β = -0.47 weeks ; p = 0.05) . We did not find reductions in gestational duration associated with any of the other organochlorine pesticides. Our finding of decreased length of gestation related to HCB does not seem to have had clinical implications for this population, given its relatively low rate of preterm delivery (6.5%) . Key words: birth weight, DDE, DDT, gestational age, hexachlorobenzene, organochlorine, pesticides, pregnancy, serum. Environ Health Perspect 114:597-602 (2006) . doi:10.1289/ehp.8423 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 2 December 2005]
Address correspondence to L. Fenster, California Department of Health Services, Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control, 850 Marina Bay Parkway, Building P, 3rd Floor, Richmond, CA 94804-6403 USA. Telephone: (510) 620-5764. Fax: (510) 620-5743. E-mail: lfenster@dhs.ca.gov We thank the CHAMACOS staff, students, community partners, participants, and their families ; E. Weltzin (data management) ; J. Schwartz (organochlorine exposure research) ; M. Davis, L. Wilson, W. Roman-Esteva, and A. Thomas (organochlorine pesticide measurements) ; and T. Saunders (manuscript preparation) . This work was supported by National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) RO1-OH007400, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) RD-83171001, and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) PO1-ES009605. Ideas expressed in this article are the authors’ and not necessarily those of CDHS, NIOSH, EPA, or NIEHS. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 10 July 2005 ; accepted 15 November 2005.
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