Abstract
Few studies have evaluated the association between air pollutants and neural tube defects (NTDs). Moreover, the existing research ignores the lag effect of air pollution on health and provides inconsistent epidemiological evidence. We aim to estimate the association between air pollution and NTDs during the first trimester of pregnancy and identify specific susceptible windows. Birth data was collected from the Birth Defects Surveillance Network in Lanzhou from September 1, 2014, to December 31, 2019. Air quality and meteorological data were collected from ambient air monitoring stations and China Meteorological Data Network. The log connection function of the Poisson distribution function is used to establish a DLNM model to estimate the exposure–effect relationship and exposure–lag relationship association between air pollutants levels and NTDs. There were 320,787 perinatal infants in Lanzhou from September 1, 2014, to December 31, 2019, and 486 cases of NTDs (1.5‰). The result indicates that exposure to inhalable particles (PM10) at lag 2–4 weeks was significantly associated with the risk of NTDs, with the most significant impact at the lag 2 week (RR=1.048, 95%CI, 1.015–1.084). Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) at the lag 2 week was significantly associated with the risk of NTDs, with the most significant impact at the lag 2 week (RR=1.077, 95%CI, 1.004–1.155). Exposure to sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at lag 3–6weeks was significantly associated with the risk of NTDs, with the most significant impact at the lag 4 week (RR=1.220, 95%CI, 1.105–1.348; RR=1.143, 95%CI, 1.048–1.245). This study provides further evidence that exposure to air pollutants in the first trimester of pregnancy significantly increases the risk of neural tube defects.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to the data belong to the state secret content but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Talent Innovation Project of Lanzhou(2019-RC-25)and the Science and Technology Project in Cheng Guan District, Lanzhou(2020-2-11-13).
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Conceptualization, NC, Y-NB, and LZ; data collection, LZ, LP, Y-PB, R-JW, and Y-BH; data cleaning and discrepancy checks, NC and LZ; analytic strategy, Y-JY and Y-YL; analysis and interpretation of data, YY, LZ, W-LZ, and X-YR; manuscript preparation, YY and NC. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This is an observational study. The Lanzhou University and Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital of Lanzhou Research Ethics Committee has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.
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Highlights
• Exposure to air pollutants PM10, PM2.5, SO2, and NO2 during early pregnancy significantly increases the risk of NTDs.
• Using the distributed lag nonlinear model, fully consider the lag effect of air pollution on NTDs.
• Sensitively and meticulously determine the critical window in the early pregnancy
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Yang, Y., Zhou, L., Zhang, W. et al. Association between air pollutants and neural tube defects during pregnancy in Lanzhou, China: a time series analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 4826–4836 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21962-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21962-9