Central nervous defects in two children of mothers exposed to chemicals in the reinforced plastics industry. Chance or a causal relation?

Abstract

With the use of a specially designed questionnaire, with the emphasis on occupational exposure to chemical agents at work, a case-referent study was started. The series comprised mothers of all children with central nervous defects. Two case mothers were employed in the reinforced plastics industry and were exposed at work to a combination of styrene, polyester resin, organic peroxides and acetone. When the number of fertile women in this industry was considered (some 250), along with the low rate of anencephaly and hydrocephalus in the general population, diagnoses made of the children of these case mothers (0.5/1000 live births in Finland), this occupational group is strongly overrepresented in the material. A third case was also discussed in which the pregnant mother, a juvenile diabetic, was exposed at home to styrene, polyester resin and organic peroxides.