Abstract
OBJECTIVE: this study examined whether exposure to pesticides, including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), was associated with longer time to pregnancy (TTP). METHODS: Pregnant women (N = 402) living in a migrant farmworker community were asked how many months they took to conceive. Women reported their and their partners' occupational and home pesticide exposure preceding conception. In a subset (N = 289), levels of DDT and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), were measured in maternal serum. RESULTS: No associations were seen with p, p'-DDT, o, p'-DDT, or p, p'-DDE. Maternal occupational pesticide exposure (fecundability odds ratios [fOR] = 0.8, 95% CI: 0.6 to 1.0), home pesticide use (fOR = 0.6, 95% CI: 0.4 to 0.9), and residence within 200 ft of an agricultural field (fOR = 0.7, 95% CI: 0.5 to 1.0) were associated with reduced fecundability (ie, longer TTP). CONCLUSIONS: longer TTP was seen among women, but not men, reporting exposure to agricultural and home pesticides.
Keywords
Agricultural-chemicals; Agricultural-workers; Biochemical-analysis; Biohazards; Biological-effects; Biological-monitoring; Biological-systems; Environmental-exposure; Employee-exposure; Exposure-assessment; Families; Farmers; Men; Occupational-exposure; Organo-phosphorus-pesticides; Pesticides-and-agricultural-chemicals; Pesticide-residues; Pregnancy; Sexual-reproduction; Statistical-analysis; Toxic-materials; Women; Work-environment