Birth defects associated with paternal firefighting in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Am J Ind Med
• Personal Author:
  Siegel, Miriam R. ; Rocheleau, Carissa M. ; Hollerbach, Brittany S. ; Omari, Amel ; Jahnke, Sara A. ; Almli, Lynn M. ; Olshan, Andrew F.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Birth Defects Prevention Study
• Description:
  Background:
  
  Few studies have evaluated birth defects among children of firefighters. We investigated associations between birth defects and paternal work as a firefighter compared to work in non-firefighting and police officer occupations.
  
  Methods:
  
  We analyzed 1997–2011 data from the multi-site case-control National Birth Defects Prevention Study. Cases included fetuses or infants with major structural birth defects and controls included a random sample of live-born infants without major birth defects. Mothers of infants self-reported information about parents’ occupations held during pregnancy. We investigated associations between paternal firefighting and birth defect groups using logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Referent groups included families reporting fathers working non-firefighting and police officer jobs.
  
  Results:
  
  Occupational groups included 227 firefighters, 36,285 non-firefighters, and 433 police officers. Twenty-nine birth defects were analyzed. In adjusted analyses, fathers of children with total anomalous pulmonary venous return (TAPVR; OR = 3.1; 95% CI = 1.1–8.7), cleft palate (OR = 1.8; 95% CI = 1.0–3.3), cleft lip (OR = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.2–4.2), and transverse limb deficiency (OR = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.1–4.7) were more likely than fathers of controls to be firefighters, versus non-firefighters. In policereferent analyses, fathers of children with cleft palate were 2.4 times more likely to be firefighters than fathers of controls (95% CI = 1.1–5.4).
  
  Conclusions:
  
  Paternal firefighting may be associated with an elevated risk of birth defects in offspring. Additional studies are warranted to replicate these findings. Further research may contribute to a greater understanding of the reproductive health of firefighters and their families for guiding workplace practices.
  
  
• Keywords:
  Birth Defects Case-Control Studies Child Cleft Lip Cleft Palate Fathers Female Firefighting Humans Male Occupational Health Occupations Paternal Exposure Pregnancy Reproductive Health Risk Factors

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• Source:
  Am J Ind Med. 66(1):30-40
• Pubmed ID:
  36345775
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC9969860
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/ ; P30 ES010126/ES/NIEHS NIH HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  66
• Issue:
  1
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:611b5d3da35e616f0eec95fb22590cd1cc9b96fce2781f8de4cb56473265a703
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/125206/cdc_125206_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 114.19 KB ]