Grantee Research Project Results
2012 Progress Report: Exposure to Air Pollutants and Risk of Birth Defects
EPA Grant Number: R834596C002Subproject: this is subproject number 002 , established and managed by the Center Director under grant R834596
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
Center: UC Berkeley/Stanford Children’s Environment Health Center
Center Director: Tager, Ira
Title: Exposure to Air Pollutants and Risk of Birth Defects
Investigators: Tager, Ira , Hammond, S. Katharine , Shaw, Gary M. , Padula, Amy
Institution: University of California - Berkeley , Stanford University
EPA Project Officer: Callan, Richard
Project Period: May 7, 2010 through May 6, 2013 (Extended to May 6, 2014)
Project Period Covered by this Report: May 7, 2012 through May 6,2013
RFA: Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers: Formative Centers (with NIEHS) (2009) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Children's Health , Human Health
Objective:
Birth defects are the leading cause of infant mortality in the United States. Our Center's research efforts will enhance scientific understanding of the potential environmental etiologies of birth defects, which will undoubtedly have important implications for risk assessment and prevention of these common, costly, and often deadly outcomes of pregnancy. Specifically, in this project we are conducting a rigorous population-based epidemiologic study to address the following research aim: To determine whether exposures to specific air pollutants and mixtures of air pollutants, during critical periods of fetal organogenesis, are associated with women delivering infants/fetuses with structural birth defects.Progress Summary:
In this project we are using data from the largest case-control study conducted to date in the United States on birth defects — the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. We limit our inquiries to the California study site in the San Joaquin Valley — an area with demonstrated poor air quality. We examined a total of 2,455 cases of 36 defects and their relationship with air pollution and traffic metrics. The first analysis targeted specific birth defect phenotypes that appear to be more environmentally sensitive in their etiologies (neural tube defects, cleft lip with or without cleft palate, cleft palate only, gastroschisis) and included 802 cases and 849 controls. Our second analysis focused on 822 congenital heart defects, which were categorized into 19 specific defects. Our most recent analysis evaluated the remaining defects for which there were sufficient power to detect associations (12 defects and 830 cases).
Ambient air pollution measurements and traffic metrics were assigned to each of the geocoded residences reported by the study subjects during the first and second month of pregnancy. The exposures included: ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrogen oxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter < 10 μg/m3 (PM10), PM < 2.5 μg/m3 (PM2.5), and traffic density. The station-specific daily air quality data from the U.S. EPA Air Quality System were spatially interpolated using inverse distance-squared weighting. Traffic density indicators were calculated to represent the amount of traffic counts within a 300 m radius of the early pregnancy residence.
Our analyses find evidence that higher exposure to traffic-related ambient air pollutants CO, NO and NO2 and lower exposure to O3 during the first two months of pregnancy appears to be associated with increased odds of neural tube defects in the San Joaquin Valley of California after adjusting for maternal race-ethnicity, education and multi-vitamin use. In contrast, higher ozone was associated with an increased odds of gastroschisis and higher CO was associated with decreased odds of cleft lip with/without cleft palate. Exposure to increased levels of traffic density (and in some cases PM10) during the first two months of pregnancy was associated with ventricular septal defects, hypospadias, hydrocephaly and esophageal atresia.
Significance: The etiologies of most structural birth defects are unknown. There have been a few observations that point toward ambient air pollutants as risk factors for human birth defects. However, this important public health hypothesis has been under studied owing to the lack of good exposure and outcome data. Thus, Project 2 uniquely fills an important gap in our understanding of the role of environmental exposure on the risk of human birth defects.
Future Activities:
Our plans and goal essentially have not changed. Many more analyses are planned in the coming year.Journal Articles on this Report : 3 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other subproject views: | All 10 publications | 4 publications in selected types | All 4 journal articles |
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Other center views: | All 50 publications | 15 publications in selected types | All 15 journal articles |
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Padula AM, Tager IB, Carmichael SL, Hammond SK, Yang W, Lurmann F, Shaw GM. Ambient air pollution and traffic exposures and congenital heart defects in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 2013;27(4):329-339. |
R834596 (2011) R834596 (2012) R834596 (Final) R834596C002 (2011) R834596C002 (2012) R834596C002 (Final) R835435 (Final) |
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Padula AM, Tager IB, Carmichael SL, Hammond SK, Lurmann F, Shaw GM. The association of ambient air pollution and traffic exposures with selected congenital anomalies in the San Joaquin Valley of California. American Journal of Epidemiology 2013;177(10):1074-1085. |
R834596 (2011) R834596 (2012) R834596 (Final) R834596C002 (2011) R834596C002 (2012) R834596C002 (Final) R835435 (Final) |
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Padula AM, Tager IB, Carmichael SL, Hammond SK, Yang W, Lurmann FW, Shaw GM. Traffic-related air pollution and selected birth defects in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Birth Defects Research, Part A: Clinical and Molecular Teratology 2013;97(11):730-735. |
R834596 (2012) R834596 (Final) R834596C002 (2012) R834596C002 (Final) R835435 (Final) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
congenital abnormalities, pregnancy;, RFA, Health, Scientific Discipline, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, HUMAN HEALTH, Health Effects, Biochemistry, Children's Health, Biology, Risk Assessment, asthma, air toxics, prenatal exposure, biological response, measuring childhood exposure, air pollution, assessment of exposure, childhood respiratory disease, children's vulnerablity, harmful environmental agents, developmental disordersRelevant Websites:
CHAPS - SJV ExitProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractMain Center Abstract and Reports:
R834596 UC Berkeley/Stanford Children’s Environment Health Center Subprojects under this Center: (EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R834596C001 Effect of Multi-Level Environmental Exposure on Birth Outcomes
R834596C002 Exposure to Air Pollutants and Risk of Birth Defects
R834596C003 Ambient Pollutant/Bioaerosol Effects on Treg Function
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
4 journal articles for this subproject
Main Center: R834596
50 publications for this center
15 journal articles for this center