Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Congenital Anomalies in Barcelona

Abstract

Background: A recent meta-analysis suggested evidence for an effect of exposure to ambient air pollutants on risk of certain congenital heart defects. However, few studies have investigated the effects of traffic-related air pollutants with sufficient spatial accuracy.Objectives: We estimated associations between congenital anomalies and exposure to traffic-related air pollution in Barcelona, Spain.Method: Cases with nonchromosomal anomalies (n = 2,247) and controls (n = 2,991) were selected from the Barcelona congenital anomaly register during 1994–2006. Land use regression models from the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE), were applied to residential addresses at birth to estimate spatial exposure to nitrogen oxides and dioxide (NOx, NO2), particulate matter with diameter ≤ 10 μm (PM10), 10–2.5 μm (PMcoarse), ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5), and PM2.5 absorbance. Spatial estimates were adjusted for temporal trends using data from routine monitoring stations for weeks 3–8 of each pregnancy. Logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) for 18 congenital anomaly groups associated with an interquartile-range (IQR) increase in exposure estimates.Results: In spatial and spatiotemporal exposure models, we estimated statistically significant associations between an IQR increase in NO2 (12.2 μg/m3) and coarctation of the aorta (ORspatiotemporal = 1.15; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.31) and digestive system defects (ORspatiotemporal = 1.11; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.23), and between an IQR increase in PMcoarse (3.6 μg/m3) and abdominal wall defects (ORspatiotemporal = 1.93; 95% CI: 1.37, 2.73). Other statistically significant increased and decreased ORs were estimated based on the spatial model only or the spatiotemporal model only, but not both.Conclusions: Our results overall do not indicate an association between traffic-related air pollution and most groups of congenital anomalies. Findings for coarctation of the aorta are consistent with those of the previous meta-analysis.Citation: Schembari A, Nieuwenhuijsen MJ, Salvador J, de Nazelle A, Cirach M, Dadvand P, Beelen R, Hoek G, Basagaña X, Vrijheid M. 2014. Traffic-related air pollution and congenital anomalies in Barcelona. Environ Health Perspect 122:317–323; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1306802

Associations between exposure to ambient benzene and PM2.5 during pregnancy and the risk of selected birth defects in offspring

“…Several studies have examined the association between maternal exposure to ambient air pollution and congenital heart defects, orofacial clefts, and spina bifida (Agay-Shay et al, 2013; Dadvand et al, 2011aDadvand et al, , 2011bDolk et al, 2010;Gilboa et al, 2005;Hansen et al, 2009;Hwang and Jaakkola, 2008;Lupo et al, 2011;Marshall et al, 2010;Padula et al, 2013a;Padula et al, 2013bPadula et al, , 2013cRamakrishnan et al, 2013;Rankin et al, 2009;Ritz et al, 2002;Schembari et al, 2014;Stingone et al, 2014;Strickland et al, 2009;Vinikoor-Imler et al, 2013). However, benzene and (until recently) PM 2.5 have been understudied pollutants in fetal development.…”

“…They also reported an increased odds of pulmonary valve stenosis and perimembranous ventricular septal defect with higher exposure to PM 10 . More recently, Schembari et al evaluated the association between several birth defects and various pollutants, and reported an inverse association between PM 2.5 and ventricular septal defect (Schembari et al, 2014). No other significant associations between maternal exposure to PM 2.5 and the risk of congenital heart defects or neural tube defects were observed.…”

“…Our other decisions included the use of a defect-specific window of vulnerability to teratogens as the temporal scale of analysis. Windows used in previous studies have ranged from 3 to 8 weeks of gestation (Agay-Shay et al, 2013;Dadvand et al, 2011aDadvand et al, , 2011bGilboa et al, 2005;Schembari et al, 2014) to the entire first trimester (Rankin et al, 2009). We consider the defect-specific window of vulnerability to be the most etiologically relevant, but also conducted a sensitivity analysis on the impacts of that choice.…”

“…Exposure has been reported to impact fetal growth (Le et al, 2012;Rich et al, 2009), birth weight (Morello-Frosch et al, 2010;Wilhelm et al, 2012), preterm birth (Chang et al, 2012;Rudra et al, 2011), as well as pregnancy conditions such as preeclampsia Wu et al, 2009;Wu et al, 2011). Several studies have also examined the association between exposure to air pollution and select birth defects (Dadvand et al, 2011a(Dadvand et al, , 2011bDolk et al, 2010;Gilboa et al, 2005;Hansen et al, 2009;Hwang and Jaakkola, 2008;Rankin et al, 2009;Ritz et al, 2002;Stingone et al, 2014;Strickland et al, 2009); however, only until recently have studies included PM 2.5 and benzene as pollutants of interest (Agay-Shay et al, 2013;Lupo et al, 2011;Marshall et al, 2010;Padula et al, 2013aPadula et al, , 2013bPadula et al, , 2013cRamakrishnan et al, 2013;Schembari et al, 2014;Vinikoor-Imler et al, 2013).…”

Elevated ambient temperatures and risk of neural tube defects

“…In humans, maternal fever during the first trimester is a risk factor for neural tube defects,7–11 and external sources of heat, such as long showers,12 hot baths13 and hot tubs,9 14 15 have also been implicated. Environmental exposures such as pollution potentially increase the risk of neural tube defects,16 17 but the possibility of an association with elevated ambient temperature has received little attention.…”