Background: Infant exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) may contribute to obesity. However, many studies so far have been small, focused on transplacental exposure, used an inappropriate measure to assess postnatal exposure through breastfeeding if any, or did not discern between prenatal and postnatal effects.
Objectives: We investigated prenatal and postnatal exposure to POPs and infant growth (a predictor of obesity).
Methods: We pooled data from seven European birth cohorts with biomarker concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyl 153 (PCB-153) (n = 2,487), and p,p´-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p´-DDE) (n = 1,864), estimating prenatal and postnatal POPs exposure using a validated pharmacokinetic model. Growth was change in weight-for-age z-score between birth and 24 months. Per compound, multilevel models were fitted with either POPs total exposure from conception to 24 months or prenatal or postnatal exposure.
Results: We found a significant increase in growth associated with p,p´-DDE, seemingly due to prenatal exposure (per interquartile increase in exposure, adjusted β = 0.12; 95% CI: 0.03, 0.22). Due to heterogeneity across cohorts, this estimate cannot be considered precise, but does indicate that an association with infant growth is present on average. In contrast, a significant decrease in growth was associated with postnatal PCB-153 exposure (β = –0.10; 95% CI: –0.19, –0.01).
Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the largest study to date of POPs exposure and infant growth, and it contains state-of-the-art exposure modeling. Prenatal p,p´-DDE was associated with increased infant growth, and postnatal PCB-153 with decreased growth at European exposure levels.
1Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway; 2Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; 3Université de Montréal Public Health Research Institute (IRSPUM), Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; 4Environmental Risk and Health, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium; 5Department of Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Public Health, Slovak Medical University, Bratislava, Slovakia; 6Department of Environmental Medicine, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark; 7Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium; 8Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; 9Inserm, UMR 1085, IRSET, Rennes 1 University, Rennes, France; 10Service d’Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Rennes, Rennes, France; 11Team “Early Origin of the Child’s Health and Development” (ORCHAD), INSERM, UMR1153 Epidemiology and Biostatistics Sorbonne Paris Cité Center (CRESS), Paris Descartes University, Paris, France; 12Faculty of Pharmacy, University Paris Sud, Châtenay-Malabry, France; 13Department of Hygiene, Social and Environmental Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany; 14IUF–Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf, Germany; 15Environment and Health Department, Institute for Public Health Surveillance, Saint-Maurice Cedex, France; 16Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus MC – Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; 17Department of Food Safety and Infection Biology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway
Recommended Citation:
Nina Iszatt,1 Hein Stigum,1 Marc-,et al. Prenatal and Postnatal Exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants and Infant Growth: A Pooled Analysis of Seven European Birth Cohorts[J]. Environmental Health Perspectives,2015-01-01,Volume 123(Issue 7):730