Lactational Exposure to Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers and Its Relation to Early Childhood Anthropometric Measurements

Citation

Hoffman, Kate; Mendez, Michelle A.; Siega-Riz, Anna Maria; Herring, Amy H.; Sjodin, Andreas; & Daniels, Julie L. (2016). Lactational Exposure to Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers and Its Relation to Early Childhood Anthropometric Measurements. Environmental Health Perspectives, 124(10), 1656-1661. PMCID: PMC5047775

Abstract

Background: Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants that may influence growth and development. Objective: We investigated the association between exposure to PBDEs via breast milk and anthropometric measurements in early childhood.
Methods: The Pregnancy Infection and Nutrition (PIN) Babies studies followed a cohort of North Carolina pregnant women and their children through 36 months of age. Breast milk samples obtained at 3 months postpartum were analyzed for PBDEs. We collected height and weight records from well-baby doctor visits and also measured children during study visits (n = 246 children with > 1,400 anthropometric measurements). We assessed the relationship between breast milk concentrations of five PBDE congeners-BDEs 28, 47, 99, 100, and 153-and child's weight-for- age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height z-scores (WAZ, HAZ, and WHZ, respectively), adjusting for age; maternal age, race, prepregnancy BMI; parity; smoking during pregnancy; and breastfeeding, and stratifying by sex.
Results: Overall, PBDE exposures via breast milk were not associated with early-life anthropometric measures in the PIN Babies cohort. When stratified by sex, PBDEs in milk were inversely associated with WHZ for boys; however, associations did not follow a consistent pattern across the concentration gradient and were imprecisely estimated. Among girls, PBDEs tended to be associated with increased WHZ except for BDE-153, which was inversely associated with WHZ, though all estimates were imprecisely estimated.
Conclusions: We observed little evidence of associations between early-life PBDE exposures via breast milk and anthropometric measurements overall; however, our results prompt the need for sex-specific investigations in larger cohorts.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp201

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2016

Journal Title

Environmental Health Perspectives

Author(s)

Hoffman, Kate
Mendez, Michelle A.
Siega-Riz, Anna Maria
Herring, Amy H.
Sjodin, Andreas
Daniels, Julie L.

PMCID

PMC5047775

ORCiD

Siega-Riz - 0000-0002-1303-4248