http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2010-02/06/c_13165473.htm
Agricultural chemical associated with birth defect
English.news.cn 2010-02-06 07:46:40
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Exposure to agricultural chemical atrazine may
raise the risk of birth defect called gastroschisis, U.S. researchers have
found.
To find out a link between atrazine and gastroschisis, researchers at the
University of Washington in Seattle analyzed 805 cases of live-born infants
with gastroschisis between 1987 and 2006, along with 3,616 normal infants who
acted as controls.
The researchers matched birth certificates with U.S. Geological Survey
databases of agricultural spraying of atrazine, nitrates, and
2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid.
Gastroschisis occurred more often among infants born to mothers who lived less
than 25 kilometers (or about 15.5 miles) from the site of high surface water
contamination with atrazine. There was no increased risk associated with the
other chemicals.
The study also found that the risk of gastroschisis was higher for women who
conceived in the spring (March through May), when agricultural chemical use is
more prevalent.
There is a body of evidence from the study that infant abdominal hernia rates
are higher near farms using atrazine, the researchers noted.
Gastroschisis is an abdominal wall defect in which the intestines, and
sometimes other organs, develop outside the abdomen through an opening in the
abdominal wall. The incidence of this birth defect, also called infant
abdominal hernia, has doubled to quadrupled over the past 30 years.
The study findings were presented on Friday to the annual meeting of the
Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine being held in Chicago.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
