Poster created for participants in the Mothers & Newborns Study in Northern Manhattan / South Bronx, describing what to expect at every stage of the study. English / Spanish
CCCEH Research: Northern Manhattan / South Bronx
This is the Center’s largest study, focusing on a sample of 725 African American and Latino pregnant women and, once born, their babies whose health is monitored from birth through 9 years of age. Families are typically low-income and live in New York City’s Washington Heights, Harlem, and South Bronx neighborhoods where rates of asthma are among the highest nationwide, and rates of low birth weight and other developmental problems are also elevated. Mothers are all healthy, non-working, and non-smokers at the time of enrollment into the study, and have been living in their neighborhood for at least one year.
Research Findings
Following is a summary of key findings from this research study:
Exposure
- All pregnant women in the study and their babies are exposed to multiple common pollutants that can harm fetal and child development, respiratory health, or increase cancer risk. Exposures include PAHs in outdoor and indoor air (produced by fuel burning from motor vehicles, power plants, industry, incinerators, residential heating) (Perera et al., 2003); pesticides used in homes (Whyatt et al., 2004); and secondhand smoke (Perera et al., 2004).
- There was widespread phthalate exposure during pregnancy among the study participants. Phthalates were detected in 99% to 100% of maternal personal air samples. Two or more of the DEHP metabolites (a particular type of phthalate) were detected in 100% of urine samples. Levels of exposure were generally higher among the CCCEH cohort women than among women of reproductive age (18 to 40 years) sampled through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (Adibi et al., 2008).
Fetal Growth and Cognitive Development
PAHs
- Prenatal exposure to PAHs reduced birth weight and head circumference in African-American babies born to women who were more highly exposed to the air pollutants (Perera et al., 2003). Several studies have reported that reduction in head circumference at birth or during the first year of life correlates with poorer cognitive functioning and school performance in childhood
- Children with high prenatal exposure to PAHs had significantly lower test scores at age 3 on the Bayley test for cognitive development and were more likely to be developmentally delayed (Perera et al., 2006).
- Prenatal exposure to PAHs at levels encountered in NYC air can adversely affect child IQ scores at 5 years of age (Perera et al., submitted 2009).
Pesticides
- Prenatal exposure to two household pesticides, chlorpyrifos and diazinon, which transfer easily from the mother to her fetus, reduced birth weight by an average of 6.6 ounces — the equivalent of weight reduction seen in babies born to women who smoked (Whyatt et al., 2004).
- Children prenatally exposed to high levels of chlorpyrifos were significantly more likely than children exposed to low levels to experience delay in both psychomotor and cognitive development, and to show symptoms of attentional disorders, Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and pervasive personality disorder at age 3. Although the EPA banned residential use of chlorpyrifos in 2001, this pesticide is still widely used in agriculture (Rauh et al., 2006).
- Pyrethroid insecticides appear to be replacing the organophosphorus insecticides like chlorpyrifos and diazinon for residential pest control among participants in this cohort. Specifically, levels of permethrin, a common pyrethroid insecticide, and piperonyl butoxide, a pyrethroid synergist, have increased in personal air samples collected from subjects during pregnancy. Also following the 2000-2001 EPA restrictions, both reporting of cockroaches in the home and use of spray pesticides during pregnancy have increased. Insect resistance to pyrethroids may be one possible explanation for these trends (Williams et al., 2008).
Secondhand Smoke
- Children prenatally exposed to secondhand smoke — especially children experiencing material hardship (unmet basic needs food, clothing and housing) — had significantly reduced scores on tests of cognitive development at two years of age (Rauh et al., 2004).
Phthalates
- Prenatal exposure to the phthalate DEHP was associated with shorter gestation. Gestational age was shorter by 1.1 days for each log-unit increase in metabolite concentrations and averaged 5.1 days less among the most exposed. Given inconsistencies with prior findings in other study populations additional research is warranted (Whyatt et al., submitted 2009).
Asthma Risk
- Over half the babies in the study have been born with an immune response to cockroach proteins that may increase the risk of asthma in certain children (Miller et al., 2001).
- Pest infestation, allergen levels, and pesticide use are higher among women and babies living in the most deteriorated housing (Rauh et al., 2002).
- Combined prenatal exposure to airborne PAHs and postnatal secondhand smoke results in the increased likelihood of respiratory symptoms at one and two years of age that may be associated with increased children’s asthma risk (Miller et al., 2004).
- In the Center’s evaluation of the New York City Housing Authority’s intervention to reduce toxic pesticide use in public housing, high cockroach and mouse allergen levels were significantly associated with asthma prevalence among children and adults (Chew et al., 2006).
- Developing antibodies to cockroach and mouse proteins is associated with a greater risk for wheeze, hay fever, and eczema in preschool urban children as young as three years of age (Donohue et al., 2008).
- CCCEH has linked epigenetic alterations associated with prenatal exposure to PAHs in cord blood with parental report of asthma by age 5 (Perera et al., 2009). Epigenetic changes may disrupt the normal functioning of genes by affecting how they are expressed, but do not cause structural changes or mutations in the genes.
Cancer Risk
- Approximately 40% of babies in the study were born with DNA damage associated with PAHs. Such damage has been tied to an increased risk of cancer in other studies. Of particular concern, newborns had higher (approximately 10-fold) levels of adducts than mothers per unit of estimated exposure, indicating greater fetal susceptibility and potential risk from these pollutants (Perera et al., 2004).
- Prenatal exposure to PAHs was linked to structural changes in babies’ chromosomes (Bocskay et al., 2005), (Orjuela et al., in prep.). Such genetic alterations have been related in other studies to increased risk of cancer in children and adults.