Prenatal Nitrate Intake from Drinking Water and Selected Birth Defects in Offspring of Participants in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study

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Date: 
Friday, June 14, 2013
Author(s): 
Jean D. Brender
Peter J. Weyer
Paul A. Romitti
Binayak P. Mohanty
Mayura U. Shinde
Ann M. Vuong
Joseph R. Sharkey
Dipankar Dwivedi
Scott A. Horel
Jiji Kantamneni
John C. Huber Jr
Qi Zheng
Martha M. Werler
Katherine E. Kelley
John S. Griesenbeck
F. Benjamin Zhan
Peter H. Langlois
Lucina Suarez
Mark A. Canfield
the National Birth Defects Prevention Study
Journal Title: 
Environmental Health Perspectives
Abstract: 

Background
Previous studies of prenatal exposure to drinking-water nitrate and birth defects in offspring have not accounted for water consumption patterns or potential interaction with nitrosatable drugs.

Objectives
We examined the relation between prenatal exposure to drinking-water nitrate and selected birth defects, accounting for maternal water consumption patterns and nitrosatable drug exposure.

Methods
With data from the National Birth Defects Prevention Study, we linked addresses of 3,300 case mothers and 1,121 control mothers from the Iowa and Texas sites to public water supplies and respective nitrate measurements. We assigned nitrate levels for bottled water from collection of representative samples and standard laboratory testing. Daily nitrate consumption was estimated from self-reported water consumption at home and work.

Results
With the lowest tertile of nitrate intake around conception as the referent group, mothers of babies with spina bifida were 2.0 times more likely (95% CI: 1.3, 3.2) to ingest ≥ 5 mg nitrate daily from drinking water (vs. < 0.91 mg) than control mothers. During 1 month preconception through the first trimester, mothers of limb deficiency, cleft palate, and cleft lip cases were, respectively, 1.8 (95% CI: 1.1, 3.1), 1.9 (95% CI: 1.2, 3.1), and 1.8 (95% CI: 1.1, 3.1) times more likely than control mothers to ingest ≥ 5.42 mg of nitrate daily (vs. < 1.0 mg). Higher water nitrate intake did not increase associations between prenatal nitrosatable drug use and birth defects.

Conclusions
Higher water nitrate intake was associated with several birth defects in offspring, but did not strengthen associations between nitrosatable drugs and birth defects.

Citation: 

Citation: Brender JD, Weyer PJ, Romitti PA, Mohanty BP, Shinde MU, Vuong AM, Sharkey JR, Dwivedi D, Horel SA, Kantamneni J, Huber JC Jr., Zheng Q, Werler MM, Kelley KE, Griesenbeck JS, Zhan FB, Langlois PH, Suarez L, Canfield MA, and the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. 2013. Prenatal nitrate intake from drinking water and selected birth defects in offspring of participants in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. Environ Health Perspect 121:1083–1089; DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1206249.