Surveillance of pregnancies as a means of detecting environmental and occupational hazards. I. Spontaneous abortions, congenital malformations and cytogenetic abnormalities in a newborn population.

Abstract

Hansteen, I.-L., Heldaas. S. S., Langard, S., Steen-Johnsen, J., Christensen, A. and Heldaas, K. 1987. Surveillance of pregnancies as a means of detecting environmental and occupational hazards. I. Spontaneous abortions. congenital malformations and cytogenetic abnormalities in a newborn population. —Hereditas 107 197–203. Lund, Sweden. ISSN 0018–0661. Received February 4, 1987 A cytogenetic survey was performed on 1787 consecutively born infants in a county of Norway containing urban, rural and industrialized areas. In addition spontaneous abortions, congential malformations and other diseases in the newborns were registered for any relationship between the above mentioned parameters and the parents' occupational, environmental and life-style exposure factors. A cohort and a case-control approach were used for the study. Ten children with de novo chromosome aberrations were found, 117 had congenital malformations, 137 were premature or “small for dates”, in all 430 children were given a diagnosis at birth, and 147 spontaneous abortions were registered. No significant relationship between the parents' occupation and any of the parameters studied could be shown with the cohort or case-control method. A significantly higher number of children were given a clinical diagnosis at birth in the area exposed to industrial pollutants, compared to medium and unexposed areas. Looking at the different diagnoses separately, the spontaneous abortions, or the children with de novo chromosome aberrations, the same trend was found, with a higher number of cases in the exposed area of residence, but the increases were not significant. All three de novo aberrations in the exposed area were structural, in the two other areas 6 of 7 were results of non-disjunction.