M. Krstevska-konstantinova et al., Sexual precocity after immigration from developing countries to Belgium: evidence of previous exposure to organochlorine pesticides, APMIS, 109, 2001, pp. S135-S141
In a retrospective auxological study of 145 patients seen in Belgium during
a 9-year period for treatment of precocious puberty, 28% appeared to be fo
reign children (39 girls, one boy) who immigrated 4 to 5 years earlier from
22 developing countries, without any link to a particular ethnic or countr
y background. The patients were either adopted (n = 28) or non-adopted (n =
12), the latter having normal weight and height at immigration and startin
g early puberty without evidence of earlier deprivation. This led to the hy
pothesis that the mechanism of precocious puberty might involve previous ex
posure to oestrogenic endocrine disrupters. A toxicological plasma screenin
g for eight pesticides detected p,p'-DDE, which is derived from the organoc
hlorine pesticide DDT. Median p,p'-DDE concentrations were respectively 1.2
0 and 1.04 ng/ml in foreign adopted (n = 15) and non-adopted (n = 11) girls
with precocious puberty, while 13 out of 15 Belgian native girls with idio
pathic or organic precocious puberty showed undetectable concentrations (<0
.1 ng/ml). A possible relationship between transient exposure to endocrine
disrupters and sexual precocity is suggested, and deserves further studies
in immigrant children with non-advanced puberty.