environmental toxicants

Through a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the US-NIH and the US Environmental Protection Agency, Dr. Enrique M. Ostrea Jr., a full-time tenured Professor of Pediatrics at Wayne State University and an Adjunct Research Professor at ICHHD, collaborated on the study Fetal Exposure to Environmental Toxicants and Infant/Child Outcomes. He received simultaneous research grants to identify environmental toxicants in newborn infants through meconium testing and determined pertinent infant outcomes. Ostrea received a continuing grant from the US-NICHD to follow-up mother-infant dyads up to 6 years of age.

Conducting the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) test to determine maternal IQ.

A total of 716 mother-infant dyads were followed up until the children reached 6 years of age (99% follow-up rate). The mean full IQ score was 83.6 (±8.6) at 6 years old. Prenatal but not post-natal exposure to household pesticides, such as propoxur and pyrethroids, was found to negatively affect the child’s IQ at 4 years old significantly. Confounders affecting the child’s IQ like maternal IQ; child’s weight, height, and head circumferences; socio-economic status; and home stimulation scores should be considered aside from prenatal exposures.

    1. Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (Link)

    2. Combined analysis of prenatal (maternal hair and blood) and neonatal (infant hair, cord blood and meconium) matrices to detect fetal exposure to environmental pesticides (Link)

    3. An epidemiologic study comparing fetal exposure to tobacco smoke in three Southeast Asian countries (Link)

    4. Use of the Griffiths Mental Development Scales in an argo-industrial province in the Philippines (Link)

    5. Fetal exposure to propoxur and abnormal child neurodevelopment at 2 years of age (Link)

    6. Analysis of house dust and children’s hair for pesticides: A comparison of markers on ongoing pesticide exposure in children (Link)

    7. Trends in long-term exposure to propoxur and pyrethroids in young children in the Philippines (Link)

Study Partners