PARENT SESSION

(MS36) FUTURE FAMILIES: BACKGROUND CONTAMINATION AND HUMAN REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH.

Swan, Shanna¹, ¹ University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

ABSTRACT- The Study for Future Families is a multi-center pregnancy cohort study designed to examine geographic variation in reproductive parameters in fertile couples and their offspring. Study participants provided a variety of biological samples including pre- and postnatal urine and serum (from mothers); serum, urine and semen samples (fathers) and urines in early infancy (babies). To date we have measured monoester metabolites of current-use pesticides in urine from a sample of fathers and monoester metabolites of phthalates in urine samples from mothers (pre and post-natal) and infants. In the most agricultural of our study centers centers (Columbia, MO), metabolite levels were significantly associated with poor semen quality for the herbicides alachlor and atrazine, and for the insecticide diazinon (2-isopropoxy-4-methyl-pyrimidinol, or IMPY) (P-values = 0.0007, 0.012, and 0.0004, for alachlor, atrazine and IMPY, respectively). In addition, urinary concentrations of four phthalate metabolites [monoethyl phthalate (MEP), mono-n-butyl phthalate (MBP), monobenzyl phthalate (MBzP), and mono-isobutyl phthalate (MiBP)] in prenatal samples were inversely related to anogenital distance (AGD), a sensitive marker of anti-androgen activity [p-values ranged from 0.012 (MEP) to 0.055 (MBzP)]. Three of the monoesters associated with AGD are the same ones shown to shorten AGD in rodent pups exposed prenatally and the magnitude of the decreases in AGD in human and rodents are comparable. The alterative sources of exposure will be compared based on questionnaire data on product use and correlations between pesticide and phthalate metabolites in biological samples. We will discuss the public health impact of these findings in light of data from a national sample (NHANES) showing that the a substantial fraction of the population of the United States is exposed to these xenobiotics at levels we have shown to be significantly associated with adverse reproductive parameters.

KEY WORDS: pesticides, phthalates, semen quality, ano-genital distance