Chest
Clinical InvestigationsAIRWAYSPolycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Environmental Tobacco Smoke, and Respiratory Symptoms in an Inner-city Birth Cohort
Section snippets
Study Cohort
Informed consent was obtained in accordance with the Columbia University Institutional Review Board. Three hundred ninety-nine pregnant nonsmoking Dominican and African-American women residing in Washington Heights, Central Harlem, and the South Bronx were screened. The classification of ethnicity was based on self-definition and group identification. Recruitment and monitoring occurred under the auspices of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, which is studying a birth
Cohort Characteristics
Characteristics of the study population are shown in Table 1. Our cohort consisted of more Dominicans than African Americans. Seventeen percent of the women had a medical history of asthma, and the majority had at least a twelfth-grade education. The mothers’ age averaged 24.5 ± 5.0 years. In addition, > 51% of the newborns were female. The birth weight of the newborns ranged from 1,875 to 5,110 g (mean weight, 3,387 ± 487 g). There were no significant differences in any of the charted
Discussion
Growing evidence suggests that exposure to DEP may contribute to respiratory problems in children.135 Yet, gaps in our understanding include questions regarding the role of various components that comprise DEP, such as PAH, the important time window of exposure, and the importance of the interaction of DEP exposure with other potentially hazardous environmental exposures. Our results suggest that PAH exposure is associated with adverse respiratory outcomes by age 12 to 24 months when occurring
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank Yair Hazi, PhD, for his assistance in the PAH measurements, and the subjects of this study for taking the time and effort to participate in the research.
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Grant support was provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (grants P501 ES09600 and 5 RO1 ES08977, RO1ES111158, RO1 ES012468), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan (P30 ES09089), Environmental Protection Agency (grants R827027, 8260901), Irving General Clinical Research Center (grant RR00645), Bauman Family Foundation, Gladys & Roland Harriman Foundation, W. Alton Jones Foundation, New York Community Trust, Educational Foundation of America, Rockefeller Financial Services, Horace W. Smith Foundation, Beldon Fund, John Merck Fund, and V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation.