- Full (HTML) - Related EHP Articles - Purchase This Issue

Vincent F. Garry,¹ Dina Schreinemachers,² Mary E. Harkins,¹ and Jack Griffith²

1University of Minnesota Laboratory of Environmental Medicine and Pathology, Minneapolis, MN 55414 USA; ²U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711 USA

Abstract
Earlier studies by our group suggested the possibility that offspring of pesticide appliers might have increased risks of birth anomalies. To evaluate this hypothesis, 4,935 births to 34,772 state-licensed, private pesticide appliers in Minnesota occurring between 1989 and 1992 were linked to the Minnesota state birth registry containing 210,723 live births in this timeframe. The birth defect rate for all birth anomalies was significantly increased in children born to private appliers. Specific birth defect categories, circulatory/respiratory, urogenital, and musculoskeletal/integumental, showed significant increases. For the general population and for appliers, the birth anomaly rate differed by crop-growing region. Western Minnesota, a major wheat, sugar beet, and potato growing region, showed the highest rate of birth anomalies per/1000 live births: 30.0 for private appliers versus 26.9 for the general population of the same region. The lowest rates, 23.7/1000 for private appliers versus 18.3/1000 for the general population, occurred in noncrop regions. The highest frequency of use of chlorophenoxy herbicides and fungicides also occurred in western Minnesota. Births in the general population of western Minnesota showed a significant increase in birth anomalies in the same three birth anomaly categories as appliers and for central nervous system anomalies. This increase was most pronounced for infants conceived in the spring. The seasonal effect did not occur in other regions. The male/female sex ratio for the four birth anomaly categories of interest in areas of high phenoxy herbicide/fungicide use is 2.8 for appliers versus 1.5 for the general population of the same region (p = 0.05) . In minimal use regions, this ratio is 2.1 for appliers versus 1.7 for the general population. The pattern of excess frequency of birth anomalies by pesticide use, season, and alteration of sex ratio suggests exposure-related effects in appliers and the general population of the crop-growing region of western Minnesota. Key words: agriculture, birth defects, data linking, fungicides, herbicides, pesticide appliers. Environ Health Perspect 104:394-399 (1996)

Address correspondence to V. F. Garry, University of Minnesota Laboratory of Environmental Medicine and Pathology, Stone Lab I, 421 29th Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414 USA.

We thank John Hines and Linda Vinton of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, and Carol Vargas and John Oswald of the Minnesota Department of Health for their cooperation and assistance in acquisition of data for the data linkage study ; John Norman for his work in preparation of the databases ; and Mary Bicknese for her editorial assistance in the preparation of the manuscript. Funding for this work was provided in part by U.S. EPA grant CR817543. The views expressed herein are those of the investigators and do not necessarily reflect the official viewpoint of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Received 31 August 1995 ; accepted 1 December 1995.