Background: The health effects of suspended particulate matter (PM) may depend on its chemical composition. Associations between maternal exposure to chemical constituents of PM and newborn’s size have been little examined.
Objective: We aimed to investigate the associations of exposure to elemental constituents of PM with term low birth weight (LBW; weight < 2,500 g among births after 37 weeks of gestation), mean birth weight, and head circumference, relying on standardized fine-scale exposure assessment and with extensive control for potential confounders.
Methods: We pooled data from eight European cohorts comprising 34,923 singleton births in 1994–2008. Annual average concentrations of elemental constituents of PM ≤ 2.5 and ≤ 10 μm (PM2.5 and PM10) at maternal home addresses during pregnancy were estimated using land-use regression models. Adjusted associations between each birth measurement and concentrations of eight elements (copper, iron, potassium, nickel, sulfur, silicon, vanadium, and zinc) were calculated using random-effects regression on pooled data.
Results: A 200-ng/m3 increase in sulfur in PM2.5 was associated with an increased risk of LBW (adjusted odds ratio = 1.36; 95% confidence interval: 1.17, 1.58). Increased nickel and zinc in PM2.5 concentrations were also associated with an increased risk of LBW. Head circumference was reduced at higher exposure to all elements except potassium. All associations with sulfur were most robust to adjustment for PM2.5 mass concentration. All results were similar for PM10.
Conclusion: Sulfur, reflecting secondary combustion particles in this study, may adversely affect LBW and head circumference, independently of particle mass.
1Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain; 2CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain; 3Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; 4Team of Environmental Epidemiology Applied to Reproduction and Respiratory Health, IAB (Institut Albert Bonniot), INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research), U823, Grenoble, France; 5Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; 6Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA; 7University Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France; 8Department of Social Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; 9Department of Epidemiology, Lazio Regional Health Service, Rome, Italy; 10Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical & Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland; 11University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; 12Department of Environmental Sciences, Vytauto Didziojo Universitetas, Kaunas, Lithuania; 13Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; 14TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research), Utrecht, the Netherlands; 15Institut für umweltmedizinische Forschung, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; 16Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland; 17Groningen Research Institute for Asthma and COPD, and 18Department of Pulmonary Diseases, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; 19Danish Cancer Society Research Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark; 20Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands; 21IMIM (Hospital del Mar Research Institute), Barcelona, Spain; 22Department of Public Health, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; 23Department of Hygiene, Social and Environmental Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany; 24Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden
Recommended Citation:
Marie Pedersen,1,2,et al. Elemental Constituents of Particulate Matter and Newborn’s Size in Eight European Cohorts[J]. Environmental Health Perspectives,2016-01-01,Volume 124(Issue 1):141