Effect of Socioeconomic Status on Exposures to Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) and Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) among Pregnant African-American Women

Childhood Socioeconomic Position and Pubertal Onset in a Cohort of Multiethnic Girls: Implications for Breast Cancer

“…It should be noted that we assessed the onset of signs of puberty in this study, but are aware that these signs, breast budding and pubic hair growth, may not be reflections of true pubertal onset. Rather, they may reflect changes in body phenotype due to external environmental exposures such as those potentially brought on by endocrine disrupting chemicals that may also vary by SEP (52, 53). Also, these results may not be generalizable to the entire U.S. population, even though we used data from an integrated cohort in three national geographic locations; participants were selected primarily from urban areas and were a selected sample in the sense that they agreed to participate for multiple visits over many years.…”

Socioeconomic status and exposure to multiple environmental pollutants during pregnancy: evidence for environmental inequity?

“…There are surprisingly few studies that explicitly analyse social variations in organochlorine compounds in the general population,14 29 30 or in pregnant women,15 31 32 and sample sizes have generally been small. Findings include higher levels of hexachlorobenzene but not of other organochlorines with higher educational level in Sweden,31 higher PCB but not p,p′-DDE levels with higher social position in the USA,15 29 and higher PCB and p,p′-DDE levels in non-whites in the USA 30 32. In Spain, both positive and negative associations with social class have been reported, but always in small populations 14 33 34.…”

“…Organochlorine compounds, for example, are a group of lipophilic, persistent chemicals that originated from the production of pesticides and other synthetic products and have bioaccumulated in our food chain; their exposure levels are mainly determined by diet and other lifestyle habits. Very little is known about social determinants of such exposures and they have generally not been included in environmental equity assessments 14 15…”

Disparities in the prevalence of cognitive delay: how early do they appear?

“…Nutritional status has been repeatedly shown to be an important factor, with suboptimal calorie intake and deficiencies in specific nutrients including iron, iodine and essential fatty acids known to adversely affect central nervous system functioning. [36][37][38][39] Hazardous environmental exposures are more likely to occur in socio-economically disadvantaged populations, [40][41][42] and in many cases can lead to cognitive delay. Lead is the most well-studied environmental toxin in this regard.…”