| Acute Infections and Environmental Exposure to Organochlorines in Inuit Infants from Nunavik Frédéric Dallaire,1 Éric Dewailly,1 Gina Muckle,1 Carole Vézina,1 Sandra W. Jacobson,2 Joseph L. Jacobson,3 and Pierre Ayotte1 1Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Laval University, and Public Health Research Unit, CHUQ-Laval University Medical Center, Québec, Canada; 2Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, and 3Department of Psychology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan, USA Abstract
The Inuit population of Nunavik (Canada) is exposed to immunotoxic organochlorines (OCs) mainly through the consumption of fish and marine mammal fat. We investigated the effect of perinatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) on the incidence of acute infections in Inuit infants. We reviewed the medical charts of a cohort of 199 Inuit infants during the first 12 months of life and evaluated the incidence rates of upper and lower respiratory tract infections (URTI and LRTIs, respectively) , otitis media, and gastrointestinal (GI) infections. Maternal plasma during delivery and infant plasma at 7 months of age were sampled and assayed for PCBs and DDE. Compared to rates for infants in the first quartile of exposure to PCBs (least exposed) , adjusted rate ratios for infants in higher quartiles ranged between 1.09 and 1.32 for URTIs, 0.99 and 1.39 for otitis, 1.52 and 1.89 for GI infections, and 1.16 and 1.68 for LRTIs during the first 6 months of follow-up. For all infections combined, the rate ratios ranged from 1.17 to 1.27. The effect size was similar for DDE exposure but was lower for the full 12-month follow-up. Globally, most rate ratios were > 1.0, but few were statistically significant (p < 0.05) . No association was found when postnatal exposure was considered. These results show a possible association between prenatal exposure to OCs and acute infections early in life in this Inuit population. Key words: cord blood, environmental health, gastrointestinal infections, human, infant, infections, Inuit, organochlorines, otitis, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, prenatal exposure, respiratory tract infections. Environ Health Perspect 112:1359-1364 (2004) . doi:10.1289/ehp.7255 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 18 August 2004]
Address correspondence to É. Dewailly, Public Health Research Unit, 945 Wolfe St., Sainte-Foy, Québec, G1V 5B3 Canada. Telephone: (418) 650-5115, ext. 5240. Fax: (418) 654-3132. E-mail: eric.dewailly@inspq.qc.ca We are grateful to the Nunavik population for their participation in this research. We thank the medical and health care professionals from the Inuulitsivik Health Center and the nursing stations in Puvirnituk, Inukjuak, and Kuujjuarapik for their assistance in recruiting this cohort. We acknowledge the support of the Nunavik Nutrition and Health Committee ; the Municipal Councils of Puvirnituk, Inukjuaq and Kuujjuarapik ; the Pauktuutit Inuit Women's Association ; and the Nunalituqait Ikaluqatigiitut Association. We thank G. Lebel for his involvement in the management of the exposure data and E. Lachance, C. Bouffard, K. Poitras, L. Chiodo, C. Couture, and B. Tuttle for their involvement in all phases of the data collection and instrument coding processes. We thank D. Pereg for her valuable inputs during the preparation of the manuscript. This study was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R01-ES07902) , the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs of Canada (Northern Contaminants Program) , Health Canada, and Hydro-Québec (Environmental Child Health Initiative) . F.D. is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 14 May 2004 ; accepted 18 August 2004.
The full version of this article is available for free in HTML or PDF formats. |
