Pesticides exposure through environment and risk of pre-term birth: a study from Agra city

Pre-term birth is an increasingly prevalent complex condition with multiple risk factors including environmental pollutants. Evidences linking organochlorine pesticides with adverse pregnancy outcomes are inconsistent for link between organochlorine pesticides and adverse pregnancy outcomes. We performed a case-control study of 50 cases of full-term births and 40 cases of pre-term births in this study. Placental organochlorine pesticides like metabolites of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane that is, (p,p-DDE, p,p-DDT and o,p-DDD) and isomers of hexachlorocyclohexane (alpha, beta, gamma and delta HCH) were analyzed by gas chromatography. Although the mean levels of pesticide were found higher in the placenta of the women with pre-term delivery cases placentas, but only alpha-HCH, total-HCH, p,p-DDE and total-DDT were found statistically significant. It was observed that pesticide exposed women were approximately 1.7 times more likely to deliver pre-term baby as compare to pregnant women that were not exposed to any pesticides. We also observed that increasing maternal age reduced the risk of having pre-term birth (OR = 0.99). Among all pesticides, alpha-HCH was found to be strongest isomer to induce premature baby birth (p < 0.001). This study found that pregnant women's age and chronic disease, baby's weight at the time of birth and alpha-HCH were important risk factors for pre-term births.