In utero exposure to DDT and performance on the Brazelton neonatal behavioral assessment scale

Abstract

We investigated whether decrements in neonatal neurodevelopment, as determined by the Brazelton neonatal behavioral assessment scale (BNBAS), were associated with in utero exposure to dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT): p, p′-dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane ( p, p′-DDT), o, p′-dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane ( o, p′-DDT) and p, p′-DDT's primary breakdown product p,p′-dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene ( p, p′-DDE) (heretofore collectively referred to as DDT/DDE). Our subjects were a birth cohort of 303 infants whose mothers were low-income Latinas living in the Salinas Valley, an agricultural community in California. We assessed neonates ≤2 months old using the seven BNBAS clusters (habituation, orientation, motor performance, range of state, regulation of state, autonomic stability, and reflex) and examined performance in relationship to DDT/DDE measures in maternal serum samples collected during pregnancy. We did not find any detrimental associations between in utero DDT/DDE levels and neonatal performance on the BNBAS. In this same cohort, we previously demonstrated that exposures to DDT/DDE were related to decrements in neurodevelopment at 6–24 months of age. The failure to observe effects on the BNBAS in these same children may be due to limited sensitivity of a single BNBAS assessment or a delay in the manifestations of neurodevelopmental effects of DDT/DDE until after the neonatal period.