Background

A growing body of studies now suggests that the general population is continuously and ubiquitously exposed to numerous pesticides. However, studies investigating the possible role of environmental exposure to pesticides on fetal growth have focused on a limited set of substances, despite the hundreds of modern pesticides currently available.

Aim

To explore the relation between maternal hair concentrations of 64 pesticides and metabolites and their newborns’ measurements at birth, with data from the ELFE French nationwide birth cohort.

Methods

We measured 64 compounds (10–100% detection) in bundles of hair 9 cm long collected at birth from 311 women who gave birth in France in 2011. We assessed their associations with birth weight, length, and head circumference, adjusted for potential confounders, and used elastic net regularization to simultaneously select the strongest predictors of measurements at birth. Selected variables were multiply imputed for missing values, and unpenalized estimators were assessed by standard linear regression.

Results

We observed statistically significant associations between maternal hair concentrations of seven pesticides or pesticide metabolites and birth measurements (weight: fipronil sulfone; length: TCPy, bitertanol, DEP, and isoproturon; head circumference: tebuconazole and prochloraz). Analyses restricted to boys identified 12 additional compounds: 8 independently associated with birth weight (3Me4NP, DCPMU, DMST, fipronil, mecoprop, propoxur, fenhexamid, and thiabendazole), 2 with birth length (dieldrin and β-endosulfan), and 6 with head circumference (β-endosulfan, β-HCH, fenuron, DCPMU, propoxur, and thiabendazole).

Conclusion

Our results suggest that prenatal exposure to 19 pesticides or metabolites from various chemical families may influence measurements at birth. As with any exploratory research findings, results should be interpreted cautiously, until they are replicated or verified by further epidemiological or mechanistic studies.

中文翻译：

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母亲头发样本中的多种农药和婴儿出生时的测量结果：法国国家出生队列（ELFE）的结果

背景

现在越来越多的研究表明，普通人群不断地无处不在地接触多种农药。但是，尽管目前有成百上千种现代农药可供使用，但研究环境暴露于农药对胎儿生长的可能作用的研究却集中在一组有限的物质上。

目的

为了探索母亲头发中64种农药和代谢物的浓度与新生儿出生时的测量值之间的关系，采用法国ELFE法国全国出生队列的数据。

方法

我们从2011年在法国分娩的311名妇女的出生时收集的9束长发中测量了64种化合物（检出率为10-100％）。我们评估了它们与出生体重，身长和头围的关系，并针对潜在的混杂因素进行了调整。 ，并使用弹性网正则化功能同时选择出生时最强的测量指标。将所选变量乘以归因缺失值，并通过标准线性回归评估未损失的估计量。

结果

我们观察到孕妇的7种农药或农药代谢物的头发浓度与出生率之间的统计显着相关性（体重：氟虫腈砜；长度：TCPy，比妥醇，DEP和异丙隆；头围：戊丁康唑和丙草胺）。仅限男孩的分析确定了12种其他化合物：8种与出生体重独立相关（3Me4NP，DCPMU，DMST，氟虫腈，甲丙酸，丙氧磷，苯六胺和噻菌灵），2种具有出生时长（狄氏剂和β-硫丹）和6种具有头部周围（β-硫丹，β-六氯环己烷，氟龙，DCPMU，丙氧磷和噻菌灵）。

结论

我们的结果表明，产前接触各种化学家族的19种农药或代谢物可能会影响出生时的测量。与任何探索性研究结果一样，应谨慎解释结果，直到通过进一步的流行病学或机制研究复制或验证结果为止。