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BACKGROUND: Widespread residential pesticide use throughout the United States has resulted in ubiquitous, low-level pesticide exposure. The mix of active pesticide ingredients is changing in response to 2000--2001 regulations restricting use of the organophosphorus insecticides chlorpyrifos and diazinon. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to determine the impact of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations on pest infestation levels, pesticide use, and pesticides measured in indoor air samples. METHODOLOGY: 511 pregnant women from inner-city New York were enrolled between 2000 and 2006. Permethrin, a pyrethroid insecticide; piperonyl butoxide (PBO), a pyrethroid synergist; chlorpyrifos; and diazinon were measured in 48-hr prenatal personal air samples. Data on pest infestation and pesticide use were collected via questionnaire. RESULTS: Eighty-eight percent of women reported using pesticides during pregnancy; 55% reported using higher-exposure pesticide applications (spray cans, pest bombs and/or professional pesticide applicators). Self-reported pest sightings and use of higher-exposure applications increased significantly after the regulations were implemented (p < 0.001). PBO, cis-, and trans-permethrin were detected in 75, 19, and 18% of personal air samples, respectively. Detection frequencies of PBO and cis- and trans-permethrin increased significantly over time (p < 0.05 controlling for potential confounders). Levels and/or detection frequencies of these compounds were significantly higher among mothers reporting use of high exposure pesticide applications (p ≤ 0.05). Chlorpyrifos and diazinon levels decreased significantly over time (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: In this cohort, pest infestations, use of pesticides, and use of permethrin appear to increase after the residential restriction of organophosphorus insecticides. This is one of the first studies to document widespread residential exposure to PBO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Residential insecticide use is widespread in the United States, but few data are available on the persistence and variability in levels in the indoor environment. OBJECTIVE: The study aim was to assess within-and between-home variability in indoor-air insecticides over the final 2 months of pregnancy among a cohort of African-American and Dominican women from New York City. METHODS: Women not employed outside the home were enrolled between February 2001 and May 2004 (n = 102); 9 insecticides and an adjuvant were measured in 48-hr personal air samples and 2-week integrated indoor air samples collected sequentially for 7.0 ± 2.3 weeks (n = 337 air samples). RESULTS: Sixty-one percent of the women reported using pest control during the air samplings. Chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and propoxur were detected in 99-100% of personal and indoor samples (range, 0.4-641 ng/m³). Piperonyl butoxide (a pyrethroid adjuvant) was detected in 45.5-68. 5% (0. 2-608 ng/m³). There was little within-home variability and no significant difference in air concentrations within homes over time (p = 0.2); between-home variability accounted for 88% of the variance in the indoor air levels of propoxur, 92% in chlorpyrifos, 94% in diazinon, and 62% in piperonyl butoxide (p < 0.001). Indoor and maternal personal air insecticide levels were highly correlated (r = 0.7-0.9, p < 0.001). Diazinon and chlorpyrifos levels declined 5-fold between 2001 and 2004 but were detected in all homes 1.5 and 2.5 years, respectively, after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ban on their residential use. CONCLUSION: Results showed that the insecticides were persistent in the home with little variability in air concentrations over the 2 months and contributed to chronic maternal inhalation exposures during pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In anticipation of the National Children's Study, lessons can be learned from the smaller birth cohort studies conducted by five Centers for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The populations studied are diverse in ethnicity and social class and reside in urban and rural environments. Although almost all of the centers chose to enroll participants through medical care facilities, they had to develop independent staffs and structures because of the overburdened medical care system. Some of the lessons learned by the centers include the importance of continuous funding, building community partnerships to conduct culturally appropriate research, hiring bilingual and bicultural staff from the community, prioritizing research goals, developing biorepositories to ensure future utility of samples, instituting quality control procedures for all aspects of specimen and data collection, maintaining frequent contact with study participants, ensuring ethical conduct of the research in a changing medical-legal climate, and communicating results in a timely and appropriate manner to participants and the wider community. All centers underestimated the necessary start-up time, staff, and costs in conducting these birth cohort studies. Despite the logistical complexity and added expenses, all centers emphasize the importance of studying the impact of environmental exposures on those children most at risk, those living in minority and low-income communities. These centers present barriers encountered, solutions found, and considerations for future research, with the hope that the lessons learned can help inform the planning and conduct of the National Children's Study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are toxic pollutants released by the World Trade Center (WTC) fires and various urban combustion sources. Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) is a representative member of the class of PAHs. PAH-DNA adducts, or BaP-DNA adducts as their proxy, provide a measure of chemical-specific genetic damage that has been associated with increased risk of adverse birth outcomes and cancer. To learn whether PAHs from the WTC disaster increased levels of genetic damage in pregnant women and their newborns, we analyzed BaP-DNA adducts in maternal (n = 170) and umbilical cord blood (n = 203) obtained at delivery from nonsmoking women who were pregnant on 11 September 2001 and were enrolled at delivery at three downtown Manhattan hospitals. The mean adduct levels in cord and maternal blood were highest among newborns and mothers who resided within 1 mi of the WTC site during the month after 11 September, intermediate among those who worked but did not live within this area, and lowest in those who neither worked nor lived within 1 mi (reference group). Among newborns of mothers living within 1 mi of the WTC site during this period, levels of cord blood adducts were inversely correlated with linear distance from the WTC site (p = 0.02). To learn whether PAHs from the WTC disaster may have affected birth outcomes, we analyzed the relationship between these outcomes and DNA adducts in umbilical cord blood, excluding preterm births to reduce variability. There were no independent fetal growth effects of either PAH-DNA adducts or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), but adducts in combination with in utero exposure to ETS were associated with decreased fetal growth. Specifically, a doubling of adducts among ETS-exposed subjects corresponded to an estimated average 276-g (8%) reduction in birth weight (p = 0.03) and a 1.3-cm (3%) reduction in head circumference (p = 0.04). The findings suggest that exposure to elevated levels of PAHs, indicated by PAH-DNA adducts in cord blood, may have contributed to reduced fetal growth in women exposed to the WTC event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An inverse association between birth order and allergic disease has been widely observed, but has not been examined in the high asthma prevalence, inner-city populations of the United States. As part of an ongoing prospective birth cohort study, the prevalence of early phenotypes of asthma and/or allergy was compared with those reported in other studies, and the association with birth order was evaluated. Methods: Children of Dominican and African-American mothers living in Northern Manhattan underwent detailed periodic questionnaires. Total IgE from the mothers (n = 321) and the children at birth (n = 291) and at ages 24 (n = 244) and 36 (n = 155) months was measured. The association between birth order and allergy symptoms was evaluated at 12 (n = 350), 24 (n = 290) and 36 (n = 247) months. Results: Total serum IgE was detectable (>0.5 IU/ml) in 35% of the children’s cord blood and averaged 15 and 21 IU/ml at ages 24 and 36 months, respectively. They were not significantly different at any age between children with and without older siblings. Additionally, at these ages, there were no consistent associations between birth order and either wheeze, itchy eyes or eczema. Conclusions: Despite a substantially higher prevalence of asthma in the Northern Manhattan community compared with other areas, total IgE levels at ages 24 and 36 months, but not cord blood, are similar to those reported in other areas of the world. In this community, results at this age do not support a protective effect of higher birth order. Copyright © 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reported previously that insecticide exposures were widespread among minority women in New York City during pregnancy and that levels of the organophosphate chlorpyrifos in umbilical cord plasma were inversely associated with birth weight and length. Here we expand analyses to include additional insecticides (the organophosphate diazinon and the carbamate propoxur), a larger sample size (n = 314 mother-newborn pairs), and insecticide measurements in maternal personal air during pregnancy as well as in umbilical cord plasma at delivery. Controlling for potential confounders, we found no association between maternal personal air insecticide levels and birth weight, length, or head circumference. For each log unit increase in cord plasma chlorpyrifos levels, birth weight decreased by 42.6 g [95% confidence interval (CI), -81.8 to -3.8, p = 0.03] and birth length decreased by 0.24 cm (95% CI, -0.47 to -0.01, p = 0.04). Combined measures of (In)cord plasma chlorpyrifos and diazinon (adjusted for relative potency) were also inversely associated with birth weight and length (p < 0.05). Birth weight averaged 186.3 g less (95% CI, -375.2 m -45.5) among newborns with the highest compared with lowest 26% of exposure levels (p = 0.01). Further, the associations between birth weight and length and cord plasma chlorpyrifos and diazinon were highly significant (p ≤ 0.007) among newborns born before the 2000-2001 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory actions to phase out residential use of these insecticides. Among newborns born after January 2001, exposure levels were substantially lower, and no association with fetal growth was apparent (p > 0.8). The propoxur metabolite 2-isopropoxyphenol in cord plasma was inversely associated with birth length, a finding of borderline significance (p = 0.05) after controlling for chlurpyrifos and diazinon. Results indicate that prenatal chlorpyrifos exposures have impaired fetal growth among this minority cohort and that diazinon exposures may have contributed to the effects. Findings support recent regulatory action to phase out residential uses of the insecticides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a multiyear birth-cohort study examining the roles of pre- and postnatal environmental exposures on developmental deficits and asthma among children, we measured personal exposures to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) among 348 pregnant women in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx, New York. Nonsmoking African-American or Dominican women were identified and recruited into the study. During the third trimester of pregnancy, each subject wore a personal air monitor for 48 hr to determine exposure levels to nine PAH compounds. In this study, we examined levels of exposures to PAHs and tested for associations with potential predictor variables collected from questionnaires addressing socioeconomic factors and day-to-day activities during pregnancy as well as activities and environmental exposures during the 48-hr monitoring period. Reliable personal monitoring data for women who did not smoke during the monitoring period were available for 344 of 348 subjects. Mean PAH concentrations ranged from 0.06 ng/m³ for dibenz[a,h]anthracene to 4.1 ng/m³ for pyrene; mean benzo[a]pyrene concentration was 0.50 ng/m³. As found in previous studies, concentrations of most PAHs were higher in winter than in summer. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed associations between personal PAH exposures and several questionnaire variables, including time spent outdoors, residential heating, and indoor burning of incense. This is the largest study to date characterizing personal exposures to PAHs, a ubiquitous class of carcinogenic air contaminants in urban environments, and is unique in its focus on pregnant minority women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines prenatal exposures to phthalates among pregnant women in New York City and Krakow, Poland. Correlation between phthalate diester levels measured in personal air and urinary monoester metabolite levels; Comparison of phthalate levels between New York City and Krakow pregnant women; Effects of phthalates on pregnancy; Conclusion that inhalation is an important route of phthalate exposure.

Discusses preliminary findings on prevalence of respiratory symptoms suggestive of asthma and their treatment in the first year of life in New York City. Asthma risk index; Diagnosis of asthma and eczema; Parental history of asthma; Diagnosis of medical condition.

Measures pesticides in plasma samples collected at birth between 1998 and 2001 from mother and newborn pairs enrolled in the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health prospective cohort study. Pesticide use during pregnancy among the urban minority cohort from New York City; Correlation between personal air level of chlorpyrifos, diazinon and propoxur and levels of the insecticides in plasma samples.

Discusses the effects of transplacental exposure to environmental pollutants on birth outcomes in a multiethnic population. Association of high prenatal exposure to aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) with lower birth rate; Explanation of the failure to find significant effect of PAH in the Hispanic subsamples.

Residential pesticide use is widespread in the United States. However, data are limited specific to use among minority populations. Nor are data available on the extent of pesticide exposure resulting from residential use during pregnancy. We have gathered questionnaire data on pesticide use in the home during pregnancy from 316 African-American and Dominican women residing in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. Additionally, 72 women underwent personal air monitoring for 48 hr during their third trimester of pregnancy to determine exposure levels to 21 pesticides (19 insecticides and 2 fungicides). Of the women questioned, 266 of 314 (85%) reported that pest control measures were used in the home during pregnancy; 111 of 314 (35%) reported that their homes were sprayed by an exterminator, and of those, 45% said the spraying was done more than once per month. Most (≥ 90%) of the pesticide was used for cockroach control. Use of pest control measures increased significantly with the level of housing disrepair reported. Of the women monitored, all (100%) had detectable levels of three insecticides: the organophosphates diazinon (range, 2.0–6,010 ng/m³) and chlorpyrifos (range, 0.7–193 ng/m³) and the carbamate propoxur (range, 3.8–1,380 ng/m³), as well as the fungicide o-phenylphenol (range, 5.7–743 ng/m³). We also frequently detected the following four insecticides (47–83% of samples) but at lower concentrations: the pyrethroid trans-permethrin, piperonyl butoxide (an indicator of exposure to pyrethrins), and the organochlorines 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane and chlordane. Thirty percent of the women had detectable levels of all eight pesticides. Exposures were generally higher among African Americans than among Dominicans. We detected other pesticides in ≤ 10% of samples. Results show widespread prenatal pesticide use among minority women in this cohort. Diazinon exposures for some women... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rates of developmental and respiratory diseases are disproportionately high in underserved, minority populations such as those in New York City's Washington Heights, Harlem, and the South Bronx. Blacks and Latinos in these neighborhoods represent high risk groups for asthma, adverse birth outcomes, impaired development, and some types of cancer. The Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health in Washington Heights uses molecular epidemiologic methods to study the health effects of urban indoor and outdoor air pollutants on children, prenatally and postnatally, in a cohort of over 500 African-American and Dominican (originally from the Dominican Republic) mothers and newborns. Extensive data are collected to determine exposures to paniculate matter < 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM[sub2.5]), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), diesel exhaust paniculate (DEP), nitrogen oxide, nonpersistent pesticides, home allergens (dust mite, mouse, cockroach), environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), and lead and other metals. Biomarkers, air sampling, and clinical assessments are used to study the effects of these exposures on children's increased risk for allergic sensitization, asthma and other respiratory disorders, impairment of neurocognitive and behavioral development, and potential cancer risk. The center conducts its research and community education in collaboration with 10 community-based health and environmental advocacy organizations. This unique academic-community partnership helps to guide the center's research so that it is most relevant to the context of the low-income, minority neighborhoods in which the cohort resides, and information is delivered back to these communities in meaningful ways. In turn, communities become better equipped to relay environmental health concerns to policy makers. In this paper we describe the center's research and its academic-community partnership and present some preliminary findings. Key words: asthma, cancer... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Despite growing concern over potential health effects associated with exposures to the endocrine disruptor, bisphenol A (BPA), insufficient information is available on determinants of BPA concentrations among minority populations in the US. Objectives: To describe concentrations and predictors of BPA in an inner-city longitudinal birth cohort. Methods: We analyzed spot urines for total BPA collected during pregnancy and child ages 3, 5, and 7 years from African Americans and Dominicans (n=568) enrolled in the Columbia Center for Children''s Environmental Health birth cohort and residing in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. Adjusting for specific gravity, generalized estimating equations were used to compare BPA concentrations across paired samples and linear regression analyses were used to determine relationships between BPA, season of sample collection, socio-demographic variables and urinary concentrations of phthalate metabolites. Results: BPA was detected in ≥94% of samples. Prenatal concentrations were significantly lower than postnatal concentrations. Geometric means were higher among African Americans compared to Dominicans in prenatal (p=0.008), 5 year (p<0.001) and 7 year (p=0.017) samples. Geometric means at 5 and 7 years were higher (p=0.021, p=0.041 respectively) for children of mothers never married compared to mothers ever married at enrollment. BPA concentrations were correlated with phthalate metabolite concentrations at prenatal, 3, 5 and 7 years (p-values <0.05). Postnatal BPA concentrations were higher in samples collected during the summer. Conclusions: This study shows widespread BPA exposure in an inner-city minority population. BPA concentration variations were associated with socio-demographic characteristics and other xenobiotics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Prospective, multiyear epidemiologic studies have proven to be highly effective in discovering preventable risk factors for chronic disease, investigations such as the Framingham Heart Study have produced blueprints for disease prevention and saved millions of lives and billions of dollars. To discover preventable environmental risk factors for disease in children, the US Congress directed the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, through the Children's Health Act of 2000, to conduct the National Children's Study. The National Children's Study is hypothesis-driven and will seek information on environmental risks and individual susceptibility factors for asthma, birth defects, dyslexia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, schizophrenia, and obesity, as well as for adverse birth outcomes. It will be conducted in a nationally representative, prospective cohort of 100 000 US-born children. Children will be followed from conception to 21 years of age. Environmental exposures (chemical, physical, biological, and psychosocial) will be assessed repeatedly during pregnancy and throughout childhood in children's homes, schools, and communities. Chemical assays will be performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and banks of biological and environmental samples will be established for future analyses. Genetic material will be collected on each mother and child and banked to permit study of gene-environment interactions. Recruitment is scheduled to begin in 2007 at 7 Vanguard Sites and will extend to 105 sites across the United States. The National Children's Study will generate multiple satellite studies that explore methodologic issues, etiologic questions, and potential interventions. It will provide training for the next generation of researchers and practitioners in environmental pediatrics and will link to planned and ongoing prospective birth cohort studies in other nations. Data from the National Children's Study will guide development of a comprehensive blueprint for disease prevention in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competing Interests: We declare no competing interests. This work was funded by the Sean N Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA, USA). The funding source had no role in the writing of the report and in the decision to submit the paper for publication. All authors contributed equally.