Summary
EUROCAT is a European network of population-based registries for the epidemiologic surveillance of congenital anomalies. EUROCAT started in 1979 and now covers more than a quarter of all births in the European Union. Currently, 40 registries in 19 countries of Europe survey 1.35 million births per year.
The objectives of EUROCAT are:
- To provide essential epidemiologic information on congenital anomalies in Europe,
- To facilitate the early warning of teratogenic exposures,
- To evaluate the effectiveness of primary prevention,
- To assess the impact of developments in prenatal screening,
- To act as an information and resource centre for the population, health professionals and managers regarding clusters or exposures or risk factors of concern,
- To provide a ready collaborative network and infrastructure for research related to the causes and prevention of congenital anomalies and the treatment and care of affected children,
- To act as a catalyst for the setting up of registries throughout Europe collecting comparable, standardised data.
EUROCAT approaches the surveillance of environmental impact in the causation of congenital anomalies in the following 3 main ways:
1) Assessment of trends in congenital anomaly prevalence,
2) Routine detection of and response to clusters,
3) Systematic evaluation of risk related to specified environmental exposures.
Fetal life is an especially sensitive period to environmental exposures and crucial exposures often occur before the pregnancy is recognised. EUROCAT, covering more than a quarter of all births in Europe, can play an important role in a European environmental health surveillance, or envirovigilance, strategy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Busby, A., Abramsky, L., Dolk, H., Armstrong, B. and EUROCAT Folic Acid Working Group (2005a) Preventing neural tube defects in Europe – population-based study, Br. Med. J. 330, 574-575.
Busby, A., Abramsky, L., Dolk, H., Armstrong, B., Addor, M.C., Anneren, G., Armstrong, N., Baguette, A., Barisic, I., Berghold, A., Bianca, S., Braz, P., Calzolari, E., Christiansen, M., Cocchi, G., Daltveit, A.K., De Walle, H., Edwards, G., Gatt, M., Gener, B., Gillerot, Y., Gjergja, R., Goujard, J., Haeusler, M., Latos-Bielenska, A., McDonnell, R., Neville, A., Olars, B., Portillo, I., Ritvanen, A., Robert-Gnasia, E., Rosch, C., Scarano, G. and Steinbicker, V. (2005b) Preventing neural tube defects in Europe: a missed opportunity, Reprod. Toxicol. 20, 393-402.
Busby, A., Ritvanen, A., Dolk, H., Armstrong, N., De Walle, H., Riano-Galan, I., Gatt, M., McDonnell, R., Nelen, V. and Stone, D. (2005c) Survey of informed consent for registration of congenital anomalies in Europe, Br. Med. J. 331, 140-141.
Calzolari, E., Bianchi, F., Dolk, H., Milan, M. and EUROCAT Working Group (1995) Omphalocele and Gastroschisis in Europe: a survey of 3 million births 1980-90, Am. J. Med. Gen. 58, 187-194.
Calzolari, E., Bianchi, F., Rubini, M., Ritvanen, A., Neville, A. and EUROCAT Working Group. (2004) Epidemiology of Cleft Palate in Europe: Implications for Genetic Research Strategy”, The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial J. 41, 244-249.
Cordier, S., Bergeret, A., Goujard, J., Ha, M-C., Ayme, S., Bianchi, F., Calzolari, E., De Walle, H., Knill-Jones, R., Candela, S., Dale, I., Danaché, B., De Vigan, C., Fevotte, J., Kiel, G. and Mandereau, L., (for the Occupational Exposure and Congenital Malformations Working Group). (1997) Congenital malformations and maternal occupational exposure to glycol ethers, Epidemiology 8, 355-363.
Cragan, J.D. and Khoury, M.J. (2000) Effect of prenatal diagnosis on epidemiologic studies of birth defects, Epidemiology 11, 695-699.
De Wals, P., Rusen, I.D., Lee, N.S., Morin, P. and Niyonsenga, T. (2003) Trend in prevalence of neural tube defects in Quebec. Birth Defects. Res. Part A. Clin. Mol. Teratol. 67, 919-923.
Dolk, H., Nichols, R and a EUROCAT Working Group (1999) Evaluation of the impact of Chernobyl on the prevalence of congenital anomalies in 16 regions of Europe, Int. J. Epdiemiol. 28, 941-948.
Dolk, H. (1999) The role of the assessment of spatial variation and clustering in the environmental surveillance of birth defects, Eur. J. Epid. 15, 839-845.
Dolk, H. (2004) Epidemiologic approaches to identifying environmental causes of birth defects. Seminars in Medical Genetics: Public Health Issue 2004. Eds Rasmussen SA and Moore CA, Am. J. Med. Gen. Part C: Seminars in Med. Gen. 125C, 4-11.
Dolk, H. (2005) EUROCAT: 25 years of European surveillance of congenital anomalies, Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal. Neonatal. Ed. 90, F355-F358.
Dolk, H. and Vrijheid, M. (2003) The impact of environmental pollution on congenital anomalies, In “The impact of environmental pollution on health”, Br. Med. Bull. 68, 25-45.
Dolk, H., Loane, M., Garne, E., De Walle, H., Queisser-Luft, A., De Vigan, C., Addor, M.C., Gener, B., Haeusler, M., Jordan, H., Tucker, D., Stoll, C., Feijoo, M., Lillis, D. and Bianchi, F. (2005) Trends and geographic inequalities in the livebirth prevalence of Down Syndrome in Europe 1980-1999, Revues Epidem. Sante. Publique, 53, 1-9. EUROCAT Working Group 2002.
Dolk, H., Vrijheid, M., Armstrong, B., Abramksy, L., Bianch,i F., Garne, E., Nelen, V., Robert, E., Scott, J.E., Stone, D. and Tenconi, R. (1998) Risk of Congenital Anomalies near Hazardous Waste Landfill Sites in Europe: the EUROHAZCON study, Lancet 352, 423-427.
Dolk, H., Vrijheid, Scott, J.E.S., Addor, M.C., Botting, B., de Vigan, C., de Walle, H., Garne, E., Loane, M., Pierini, A., Garcia-Minaur, S., Physick, N., Tenconi, R., Wiesel, A., Calzolari, E. and Stone, D. (2004) Towards the effective surveillance of hypospadias, Environ. Health Perspect. 112, 398-402.
EUROCAT Folic Acid Working Group (2005) Prevention of neural tube defects by periconceptional folic acid supplementation in Europe, University of Ulster. Online : [http://www.eurocat.ulster.ac.uk/pubdata/publications.html.][last accessed 03/04/06].
EUROCAT special report (2004) A review of environmental risk factors for congenital anomalies, EUROCAT Central Registry, University of Ulster. ISBN 1-85923-187-X. Online:[http://www.eurocat.ulster.ac.uk/pubdata/publications.html.][last accessed 03/04/06].
EUROCAT Working Group (2002a) EUROCAT Report 8: Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies in Europe 1980-1999, University of Ulster.
EUROCAT Working Group (2002b) EUROCAT Special Report: EUROCAT and Orofacial Clefts: The Epidemiology of Orofacial Clefts in 30 European regions”, EUROCAT Central Registry, University of Ulster; University of Ferrara, Italy and the CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, Pisa, Italy. Online : [http://www.eurocat.ulster.ac.uk/pubdata/publications.html.][last accessed 03/04/06].
EUROCAT Working Group (2005) EUROCAT special rReport: prenatal screening policies in Europ,. EUROCAT Central Registry, University of Ulster. Online : [http://www.eurocat.ulster.ac.uk/pubdata/publications.html.][last accessed 03/04/06].
Garcia, A. M. (1998) Occupational exposure to pesticides and congenital malformations: A review of mechanisms, methods, and results, Am. J. Ind. Med. 33, 232-240.
Garne, E., Loane, M., Dolk, H., de Vigan, C., Scarano, G., Tucker, D., Stoll, C., Gene,r B., Pierini, A., Nelen, V., Rosch, C., Gillerot, Y., Feijoo, M., Tincheva, R., Queisser-Luft, A., Addor, M.C., Mosquera, C., Gatt, M. and Barisic I. (2005) Prenatal diagnosis of congenital malformations in Europe, Ultras. Obstet. Gynecol. 25, 6-11.
Hansen, M., Kurinczuk, J.J., Bower, C. and Webb, S. (2002) The risk of major birth defects after intracytoplasmic sperm injection and in vitro fertilisation, N. Engl. J. Med. 346, 725-730.
Kallen, B. (1987) Population surveillance of congenital malformations. Possibilities and limitations, Acta Paediat. Scand. 78, 657-663.
Khoury, M.J. and Holtzman, N.A. (1987) On the ability of birth defects monitoring to detect new teratogens, Am. J. Epidemiol. 126, 136-143.
Lione A. (1987) Ionizing radiation and human reproduction, Reprod. Toxicol. 1, 3-16.
MRC Vitamin Research Group (1991) Prevention of neural tube defects: results of the Medical Research Council Vitamin Study, Lancet 338, 131-137.
Otake, M. and Schull, W.J. (1984) In utero exposure to A bomb radiation and mental retardation; a reassessment, Br. J. Radiol. 57, 409-414.
Robert-Gnasia, E. (2003) Acting on clusters arising from routine surveillance. Online : [http://www.eurocat.ulster.ac.uk/pubdata/clusteradservice.html.][last accessed 03/04/06].
Rothman, K.J. (1990) A sobering start for the cluster busters’ conference, Am. J. Epidemol. 132, suppl 1, 6-13.
Schardein, J.L. (2000) Chemically induced birth defects (3rd Ed), Marcel Dekker, New York.
Thacker, S.B. and Berkelman, R.L. P (1988) Public heath surveillance in the United States, Epidemiol. Rev. 10, 164-190.
Vrijheid, M., Dolk, H., Stone, D., Abramsky, L., Alberman, E. and Scott, J.E.S. (2000) Socio-economic inequalities in risk of congenital anomaly, Arch. Dis. Childh. 82, 349-352.
Vrijheid, M., Dolk, H., Armstrong, B, Abramsky, L., Bianchi, F., Fazarinc, I., Garne, E., Ide, R., Nelen, V., Robert, E., Scott, J.E., Stone, D. and Tenconi, R. (2002a) Risk of chromosomal congenital anomalies in relation to residence near hazardous waste landfill sites in Europe, Lancet 359, 320-322.
Vrijheid, M., Dolk, H., Armstrong, B., Boschi, G., Busby, A., Jorgensen, T., Pointer, P. and EUROHAZCON Collaborative Group (2002b) Hazard potential ranking of hazardous waste landfill sites and risk of congenital anomalies, Occup. Env. Med.59, 768-776.
Vrijheid, M., Armstrong, B., Dolk, H., van Tongeren, M. and Botting, B. (2003) Risk of hypospadias in relation to maternal occupational exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals, Occup. Environ. Med. 60, 543-550.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dolk, H. (2007). Eurocat: Surveillance of Environmental Impact. In: Nicolopoulou-Stamati, P., Hens, L., Howard, C. (eds) Congenital Diseases and the Environment. Environmental Science and Technology Library, vol 23. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4831-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4831-9_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-4830-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4831-9
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)