Parental job type influences risk for birth defects

By Helen Albert

Certain professions increase the likelihood for men having children with birth disorders, shows research published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The highest risk paternal jobs included artists; photographers and associated workers; mathematical, physical, and computer scientists; food service workers; hairdressers and cosmetologists; landscapers and groundskeepers; office and administrative support workers; sawmill, petroleum and gas workers; material moving equipment operators and motor vehicle operators; and chemical workers.

In the same journal, another study demonstrated a link between maternal occupational exposure to organic solvents and an increased incidence of congenital heart disorders in subsequent offspring.

In the first study, led by Tania Desrosiers (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA), the researchers used data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study in the USA on 9998 children with birth defects and 4066 nonmalformed control children, as well as paternal occupational histories in the 3-month period before pregnancy (63 occupation groups), to assess links between paternal job type and risk for birth defects.

As well as identifying which jobs were associated with an increased risk for birth defects, the authors found that around a third of paternal job types did not increase the risk at all. These included architects and designers, healthcare professionals, fire fighters, and fishermen, among others.

Desrosiers and team did not attempt to link specific chemical or other hazards associated with specific job types to the risk for birth defects.

However, they conclude that "findings from this study might be used to identify specific occupations worthy of further investigation and to generate hypotheses about chemical or physical exposures common to such occupations."

Suzanne Gilboa (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA) and co-authors of the second study evaluated links between maternal organic solvent exposure (1-month prepregancy or in early pregnancy) and congenital heart defects.

In total, 2951 mothers who gave birth to children with healthy hearts and 2047 who gave birth to children with congenital heart defects were compared. The team found that maternal exposure to any solvent or any chlorinated solvent significantly increased the risk for congenital heart defects 1.6-2.1 fold, depending on the type of cardiac defect.

Gilboa and team emphasize that while these results suggest a link between solvent exposure and congenital heart disorders, they "should be interpreted in light of the potential for misclassification of exposure."

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