Urinary 3-Phenoxybenzoic Acid Concentrations In Utero and in Childhood: Association with BMI Z-Score in 4-Year-Old Children

Abstract

BackgroundPyrethroids, a class of ubiquitous insecticides, have been considered as endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The use of pesticides has increased over the past few decades, which raise concerns on possibility of health effects, particularly in children. However, only a few studies have been conducted to examine the relationship between 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA) and children’s health effects. Because exposure to 3-PBA may affect children’s growth, we aimed to evaluate the association between prenatal and postnatal 3-PBA concentrations and body mass index in 4-year-old Korean children.MethodWe used the data from 578 children (309 boys and 269 girls; 45–55 months) at 4 years of age who were born from women who participated in the Environmental and Development in Children (EDC) cohort study from August 2008 to July 2011. Urinary 3-PBA concentration from mother at around 20 weeks of gestation and 4-year-old children was measured as prenatal and postnatal 3-PBA exposure, respectively.ResultThe geometric mean of BMI z-score of 4-year-old children was 1.308 and 95 percentile of BMI z-score was 1.389. Urinary 3-PBA was detected in 98.9-99.8% of prenatal and postnatal urine samples. The relationship between 3-PBA exposure at 4-year-old and BMI z-score of 4-year-old children was positively significant (p-value=0.0426). After sex stratification, the association remained significant among girls (p-value=0.0041), but not among boys. However, there is no association between prenatal 3-PBA exposure and BMI z-score at 4 years of age(p-value=0.6210).ConclusionChildhood adiposity measured as BMI Z-score was associated with urinary 3-PBA concentrations in children at 4 years of age.KeywordsPyrethroid, 3-phenoxybenzoic acid, BMI Z-score, childrenFunding’sThis research was supported by a grant (18162MFDS121) from Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2018 and Center for Environmental Health through the Ministry of Environment.