Low Birth Weight, Prematurity and Birth Defects in Children Living Near the Hazardous Waste Site, Love Canal

Abstract

Birth weight, prematurity, gestational age, and birth defects were assessed in 239 children exposed during gestational life to the Love Canal neighborhood and in 707 control children. The population living in Love Canal was composed of two groups; those referred to as homeowners who lived in single family homes and were predominantly white, and those referred to as renters who lived in a low income apartment complex and were predominantly black. These two groups were matched with comparable groups in the same city and a questionnaire was administered by trained interviewers at a neighborhood site or in the home. Mothers of exposed and control children were similar in socioeconomic status, smoking, alcohol consumption and medication use during pregnancy. There was no significant difference in prematurity, but the prevalence of low birth weight babies (<2500 g) was increased in exposed compared to control children, and multiple regression analysis showed that for the homeowner group the adjusted odds ratio was 3.0 (95% confidence interval 1.3-7.0). Both exposed and control renter groups had a high prevalence of low birth weight babies and there was no difference between the two groups. Birth defects were increased in exposed homeowner and renter groups compared to control groups with adjusted odds ratios of 1.95 (1.03-3.72) and 2.87 (1.15-7.18), respectively. The use of birth weight of babies may be useful in evaluating possible adverse effect from exposure to low levels of chemicals. In this study, a difference in the prevalence of low birth weight babies could have been detected in as few as 95 births in the exposed group. This apparent association between low birth weight and hazardous waste exposure should be confirmed in other sites and in animal species before inferring causality.