Health & Medicine - Posted by Thania Benios-UNC on Wednesday, July 25, 2012 14:05 - 3 Comments 
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Father’s line of work linked to birth defects
The study finds that glaucoma and insufficient eye tissue were associated with working as drivers, while gut abnormalities were linked to jobs such as landscaping and grounds work. (Credit: "working watering" via Shutterstock)
UNC-CHAPEL HILL (US) — Researchers have found that certain jobs held by men before they conceive a child may increase the risk of various birth defects.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
The study, led by Tania Desrosiers of the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. is based on data from the ongoing US National Birth Defects Prevention Study, which is investigating a range of potential risk factors for major birth defects in the largest population-based study of birth defects in the United States.
“The causes of most birth defects continue to elude researchers, yet birth defects are a leading cause of infant mortality and developmental disabilities in the US,” says Desrosiers. “We could stand to pay more attention to potential risk factors among fathers-to-be.”
Previous research has linked certain jobs to a general increase in the risk of birth defects, but this is the most extensive study to date that looks at this number of jobs and this number of birth defects, and parses apart which jobs are linked to specific defects.
Desrosiers and her team obtained the job histories of about 10,000 fathers with children with one or more birth defects born between 1997 and 2004, and the job histories of 4,000 fathers of children without birth defects. They then classified the fathers’ jobs into 63 groups, based on what kinds of chemical and potential hazards they may be exposed to on the job.
As reported in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the study only looked at the fathers’ job three months before conception and the first month of pregnancy, which is considered a critical period for susceptibility to damage passed on in the father’s sperm.
The results show that almost one-third of jobs were not linked with a higher risk of birth defects in infants. These jobs included healthcare professionals, dentists, firefighters, architects and designers, car assembly workers, fishermen, entertainers, smelters and foundry workers, stonemasons and glass blowers, painters, train drivers and maintenance engineers, soldiers, and commercial divers.
However, certain jobs seemed to be associated with specific types of defects. Mouth, eyes and ears, gut, limbs, and heart abnormalities were associated with artists; whereas cataracts, glaucoma, and the absence of or insufficient eye tissue were associated with photographers and photo processors.
Glaucoma and insufficient eye tissue were also associated with drivers, while gut abnormalities were linked to jobs such as landscaping and grounds work.
“Our findings imply that risk factors among fathers-to-be may play a significant role in their unborn child’s health,” says Desrosiers.
“However, we do not advise men to change their jobs based on results from our study. More research needs to be conducted to understand why certain jobs seem to be associated with elevated risk.”
More news from UNC-Chapel Hill: http://uncnews.unc.edu/
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3 Comments
Rob
Sulkhi – I don’t know the actual numbers, and they didn’t put them in this article, but I would imagine the rate of defects might climb from something like 0.01% of the general population to 0.1% for the fathers in the riskiest professions. Hardly something you can determine from personal anecdotal evidence, but still worth pursuing if we find individual chemicals to blame. Then we can offer the workers better protection or hopefully alternative, safer chemicals in their workplace.
I too wonder if it is the chemicals associated with those jobs…all of those jobs involve chemicals, except maybe the photographers. They may no longer use dark room chemicals now with the use of digital cameras, or do they? Landscapers would be around herbicides and pesticides and drivers around carbon monoxide and gasoline.
I am a makeup artist and I know many other artists who have children with no problems at all. I believe this is probably a genetic issue but surely the environment you are in is more of a factor than the profession. I know some professions may be linked to certain types of environments but it is very hard to conduct a fair test based on this.