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Fertility and female dietary exposure to persistent organochlorine compounds

SND-ID: EXT 0068

This study is part of the collection Scania Metadatabase for Epidemiology (SME)

Overview
Data and documentation

Creator/Principal investigator(s)

Anna Axmon - Lund University, Laboratory medicine

Lars Hagmar - Lunds universitet, Avdelningen för arbets- och miljömedicin, Institutionen för laboratoriemedicin

Ulf Strömberg - Lund University and Region Skåne, Department of Occupation and Environmental Medicine,Department of Laboratory Medicine and och Occupation and Environmental Medicine, Laboratory Medicine Skåne

Lars Rylander - Lund University and Region Skåne, Department of Occupation and Environmental Medicine,Department of Laboratory Medicine and och Occupation and Environmental Medicine, Laboratory Medicine Skåne

Description

Animal studies have shown that exposure for PCBs, can effects the menstrual cycle and cause reduced fertility in females. In humans, fertility can be measured by examining the waiting time to pregnancy, ie the time between the time when a couple stop using contraception and the time when the woman becomes pregnant. This can be measured only if the pregnancy was planned. Once pregnancy has been established, it is possible to examine fetal survival by looking at miscarriage risk.
In Sweden consumption of fatty fish (such as salmon and herring) from the Baltic Sea is one of the major sources of exposure to PCB. It has previously been shown that Swedish fishermen and their families eats more fish than the general population.
In order to study the possible health effects of exposure to PCBs through consumption of fatty fish from the Baltic Sea, groups of fishermen from the Swedish east coast have been identified. By matching with different registers groups of wives and ex- wives of the fishermen (fishermen's wives), and groups of sisters and half-sisters (fish sisters) have been identified. As a reference population (non-exposed), corresponding groups have been identified among fishermen on the Swedish west coast.
Questionnaires were sent to the wives of fishermen and fish sisters to gather information about their first planned pregnancy. Besides waiting time to pregnancy questions were also asked about pregnancy outcomes in order to calculate the risk of miscarriage. The response rate in both groups was just under 60% (1090 West and 505 East Coast fishermen's wives, and 1103 West and 709 East Coast fish sisters). In 121 East Coast fisher wives and 165 East Coast fisher sisters blood samples were analyzed to determine the concentration of the CB 153. This concentration was then used as a measure of exposure to PCBs.

Purpose:

To investigate whether exposure to persistent organochlorine compounds through the consumption of fatty fish from the Baltic Sea leads to a decreased fertility, measured as time to pregnancy, to investigate whether the same exposure implies an increased miscarriage risk, and to assess the relation between blood levels of PCB and the reproductive outcomes time to pregnancy and miscarriages. Show less..

Research principal, contributors, and funding

Research principal

Lund University

Responsible department/unit

Department of Laboratory Medicine, Lund

Protection and ethical review

Data contains personal data

Yes

Sensitive personal data

Yes

Code key exists

Yes

Method and time period

Unit of analysis

Individual

Time Method

Cross-section

Time period(s) investigated

1997 – 1999

Geographic coverage

Geographic spread

Geographic description: The Swedish east and west coast

Topic and keywords

Research area

HEALTH (CESSDA Topic Classification)
Medical and Health Sciences, Health Sciences, Occupational Health and Environmental Health (The Swedish standard of fields of research 2011)

Keywords

reproduction (biological), cohort studies, fertility, food, pregnancy complications, environmental pollution, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, miscarriage, epihealth, epihealth_skåne, scania, fish and fish products

Publications

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Axmon A, Rylander L, Strömberg U, Jönsson B, Nilsson-Ehle P, Hagmar L. Polychlorinated biphenyls in serum and time to pregnancy. Environ Res. 2004 Oct;96(2):186-95.

Axmon A, Hagmar L. Time to pregnancy and pregnancy outcome. Fertil Steril. 2005 Oct;84(4):966-74.

Axmon A, Rylander L, Strömberg U, Hagmar L. Female fertility in relation to the consumption of fish contaminated with persistent organochlorine compounds. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2002 Apr;28(2):124-32.

Axmon A, Rylander L, Rignell-Hydbom A. Reproductive toxicity of seafood contaminants: prospective comparisons of Swedish east and west coast fishermen's families. Environ Health. 2008 May 28;7:20. doi: 10.1186/1476-069X-7-20.

Axmon A, Rignell-Hydbom A. Association between biomarkers of exposure to persistent organochlorine compounds (POCs). Chemosphere. 2006 Jul;64(4):692-4. Epub 2005 Dec 9.

Axmon A, Rylander L, Strömberg U, Dyremark E, Hagmar L. Polychlorinated biphenyls in blood plasma among Swedish female fish consumers in relation to time to pregnancy. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2001 Nov 23;64(6):485-98.

Axmon A, Rignell-Hydbom A. Estimations of past male and female serum concentrations of biomarkers of persistent organochlorine pollutants and their impact on fecundability estimates. Environ Res. 2006 Jul;101(3):387-94. Epub 2005 Dec 13.

Axmon A, Rylander L, Strömberg U, Hagmar L. Miscarriages and stillbirths in women with a high intake of fish contaminated with persistent organochlorine compounds. Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2000 Apr;73(3):204-8.

Axmon A, Rylander L, Strömberg U, Hagmar L. Time to pregnancy and infertility among women with a high intake of fish contaminated with persistent organochlorine compounds. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2000 Jun;26(3):199-206.

Axmon A, Rylander L, Strömberg U, Hagmar L. Altered menstrual cycles in women with a high dietary intake of persistent organochlorine compounds. Chemosphere. 2004 Aug;56(8):813-9.

Axmon A. Menarche in women with high exposure to persistent organochlorine pollutants in utero and during childhood. Environ Res. 2006 Sep;102(1):77-82. Epub 2006 Feb 2.

Show more.. (11)

If you have published anything based on these data, please notify us with a reference to your publication(s). If you are responsible for the catalogue entry, you can update the metadata/data description in DORIS.

Access to data via

Homepage

The study homepage

Contact

lupop@ed.lu.se

Dataset 1

The fishermen’s wives

Description

For each woman’s five first pregnancies, information was collected on the use of contraceptives prior the pregnancy, time to pregnancy for those pregnancies that where planned, pregnancy outcome, and whether the pregnancy was a result of any medical treatment or a birth control failure. Working situation (working/not working, full/part time, shift work and night work) and heavy lifting was asked about for the woman, whereas smoking habits and coffee consumption was assessed for both the woman an

Data format / data structure

Numeric

Creator/Principal investigator(s)

Anna Axmon - Lund University, Laboratory medicine

Lars Hagmar - Lunds universitet, Avdelningen för arbets- och miljömedicin, Institutionen för laboratoriemedicin

Time period(s) investigated

1997 – 1997

Data collection

Mode of collection: Physical measurements and tests
Time period(s) for data collection: 1997–1997
Source of the data: Population group

Number of individuals/objects

1595

Response rate/participation rate

60%

Dataset 2

The fishermen’s sisters

Description

Here, only the first planned pregnancy of each woman was inquired about. The questions asked in the sister questionnaire were similar to those in the wife questionnaire. No information was collected on the women’s partners. The fishermen’s sisters were asked about their alcohol consumption, and if they at any point in their life had experienced a miscarriage. Of the 709 east coast fishermen’s sisters who replied to the first questionnaire, 203 women supplied a time to pregnancy as well as agreed

Data format / data structure

Numeric

Creator/Principal investigator(s)

Anna Axmon - Lund University, Laboratory medicine

Lars Hagmar - Lunds universitet, Avdelningen för arbets- och miljömedicin, Institutionen för laboratoriemedicin

Time period(s) investigated

1999 – 1999

Data collection

Mode of collection: Physical measurements and tests
Time period(s) for data collection: 1999–1999
Source of the data: Population group

Number of individuals/objects

1812

Response rate/participation rate

58%

Published: 2013-09-16

Last updated: 2021-08-12

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