POLYCHLORINATED-BIPHENYLS IN BLOOD-PLASMA AMONG SWEDISH FEMALE FISH CONSUMERS IN RELATION TO LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT

The authors examined the hypothesized association between the body bur den of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) in women and the risk of low bi rth weight for their infants, In Sweden, a main exposure route for PCB s and other persistent organochlorine compounds is through the consump tion of fatty fish from the Baltic Sea (on the Swedish east coast), A previous comparison between a cohort of consumers of large quantities of fish from the Swedish east coast and a reference population, togeth er with a following analysis based on questionnaire data from a case-c ontrol study within the east coast cohort, supported the hypothesized association, In 1995, blood samples were collected from the wives and ex-wives of fishermen from the Swedish east coast (n = 192) who had gi ven birth during the period 1973-1991, Cases (n = 57), i.e., infants w ith low birth weight (1,500-2,750 g), were matched with controls (n = 135; birth weight, 3,250-4,500 g) on gender, parity, and calendar year of birth, The concentration of 2,2',4,4',5,5'-hexachlorobiphenyl (CB- 153) in plasma was analyzed; it has been suggested that CB-153 is a re levant biomarker of exposure to PCBs, The concentration of CB-153 in t he plasma of mothers during the year of childbirth was ''estimated'' u sing some alternative plausible kinetic models, For two alternative es timated exposure datasets, which were focused on separately, an increa se in the risk of a low birth weight was observed at a CB-153 concentr ation of 300 and 400 ng/g lipid weight, respectively (adjusted odds ra tios of 2.1 (95% confidence interval (Cl) 1.0-4.7) and 2.3 (95% Cl 0.9 -5.9)), The present results strengthen the findings reported previousl y for this study population.