Prenatal phthalate exposure and performance on the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale in a multiethnic birth cohort.

We investigated the relationship between prenatal maternal urinary concentrations of phthalate metabolites and neonatal behavior in their 295 children enrolled in a multiethnic birth cohort between 1998 and 2002 at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Trained examiners administered the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (BNBAS) to children within 5 days of delivery. We measured metabolites of 7 phthalate esters in maternal urine that was collected between 25 and 40 weeks' gestation.

Prenatal phenol and phthalate exposures and birth outcomes.

Background: Many phthalates and phenols are hormonally active and are suspected to alter the course of development.

Objective: We investigated prenatal exposures to phthalate and phenol metabolites and their associations with body size measures of the infants at birth.

Methods: We measured 5 phenol and 10 phthalate urinary metabolites in a multiethnic cohort of 404 women in New York City during their third trimester of pregnancy and recorded size of infants at birth.

Prenatal organophosphate metabolite and organochlorine levels and performance on the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale in a multiethnic pregnancy cohort.

Prenatal exposures to organophosphate pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls have been associated with abnormal neonatal behavior and/or primitive reflexes. In 1998-2002, the Mount Sinai Children's Environmental Health Center (New York City) investigated the effects of indoor pesticide use and exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls on pregnancy outcome and child neurodevelopment in an inner-city multiethnic cohort. The Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale was administered before hospital discharge (n = 311).

Methodologic and logistic issues in conducting longitudinal birth cohort studies: lessons learned from the Centers for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research.

In anticipation of the National Children's Study, lessons can be learned from the smaller birth cohort studies conducted by five Centers for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Psychological trauma associated with the World Trade Center attacks and its effect on pregnancy outcome.

The destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) on 11 September 2001 was a source of enormous psychological trauma that may have consequences for the health of pregnant women and their fetuses. In this report, we describe the impact of extreme trauma on the birth outcomes of women highly exposed to the WTC. We enrolled 187 women who were pregnant and living or working within close proximity to the WTC on 11 September.

Exposures among pregnant women near the World Trade Center site on 11 September 2001.

We have characterized environmental exposures among 187 women who were pregnant, were at or near the World Trade Center (WTC) on or soon after 11 September 2001, and are enrolled in a prospective cohort study of health effects. Exposures were assessed by estimating time spent in five zones around the WTC and by developing an exposure index (EI) based on plume reconstruction modeling. The daily reconstructed dust levels were correlated with levels of particulate matter < or = 2.

Transgenerational effects of posttraumatic stress disorder in babies of mothers exposed to the World Trade Center attacks during pregnancy.

Context: Reduced cortisol levels have been linked with vulnerability to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the risk factor of parental PTSD in adult offspring of Holocaust survivors.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to report on the relationship between maternal PTSD symptoms and salivary cortisol levels in infants of mothers directly exposed to the World Trade Center collapse on September 11, 2001 during pregnancy.

Design: Mothers (n = 38) collected salivary cortisol samples from themselves and their 1-yr-old babies at awakening and at bedtime.

Prospective study of blood and tibia lead in women undergoing surgical menopause.

Despite the dramatic decline in environmental lead exposure in the United States during the past couple of decades, concern has been expressed regarding mobilization during menopause of existing lead stored in bone. To investigate whether bone lead concentrations decrease and blood lead levels increase, we conducted a prospective study of 91 women who were scheduled to undergo a bilateral oophorectomy for a benign condition at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City during October 1994 through April 1999. We excluded women who were younger than 30 years of age or who were postmenopausal at the time of the surgery.

Predictors of organochlorines in New York City pregnant women, 1998-2001.

Organochlorine compounds (OCs) have been found widely in human tissues. However, levels have been rapidly declining since their virtual ban in the 1970s. We measured 1,1'-dichloro-2,2'-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethylene (DDE), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and trans-nonachlor (TN) in 194 pregnant women in New York City and examined demographic and dietary predictors of their levels in serum.

Study design: evaluating gene-environment interactions in the etiology of breast cancer - the WECARE study.

Introduction: Deficiencies in cellular responses to DNA damage can predispose to cancer. Ionizing radiation can cause cluster damage and double-strand breaks (DSBs) that pose problems for cellular repair processes. Three genes (ATM, BRCA1, and BRCA2) encode products that are essential for the normal cellular response to DSBs, but predispose to breast cancer when mutated.

Characteristics of pubertal development in a multi-ethnic population of nine-year-old girls.

Purpose: Early age at menarche increases future disease risk. Secular decline in age at menarche has been attributed to body size characteristics, diet, and energy expenditure. Risk factors for puberty have been less frequently explored.

In utero pesticide exposure, maternal paraoxonase activity, and head circumference.

Although the use of pesticides in inner-city homes of the United States is of considerable magnitude, little is known about the potentially adverse health effects of such exposure. Recent animal data suggest that exposure to pesticides during pregnancy and early life may impair growth and neurodevelopment in the offspring. To investigate the relationship among prenatal pesticide exposure, paraoxonase (PON1) polymorphisms and enzyme activity, and infant growth and neurodevelopment, we are conducting a prospective, multiethnic cohort study of mothers and infants delivered at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

The CYP3A4*1B variant is related to the onset of puberty, a known risk factor for the development of breast cancer.

Breast development, one of the first signs of puberty, is closely associated with age at menarche; and early menarche is in turn a well-established risk factor for female breast cancer. We examined the relationships between the onset of puberty and gene variants for certain enzymes that regulate hormone metabolism among 137 healthy nine-year-old girls from two pediatric clinics. High-activity CYP17 alleles, involved in estrogen formation, and high-activity CYP1A2 and CYP1B1 alleles, whose gene products metabolize estradiol, were not associated with pubertal stage.

Exposure to indoor pesticides during pregnancy in a multiethnic, urban cohort.

Evidence is growing that indoor pesticide exposure is of considerable magnitude in the United States and that pesticide concentrations may be especially high in urban areas. Of particular concern is exposure of pregnant women because animal data suggest that exposure to pesticides during pregnancy and early life may impair neurodevelopment in the offspring. To investigate the relationship between prenatal exposure to indoor pesticides and infant growth and development, we are conducting a prospective, multiethnic cohort study of mothers and infants delivered at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

The Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project: description of a multi-institutional collaboration to identify environmental risk factors for breast cancer.

The Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project is a federally mandated, population-based case-control study to determine whether breast cancer risk among women in the counties of Nassau and Suffolk, NY, is associated with selected environmental exposures, assessed by blood samples, self-reports, and environmental home samples. This report describes the collaborative project's background, rationale, methods, participation rates, and distributions of known risk factors for breast cancer by case-control status, by blood donation, and by availability of environmental home samples. Interview response rates among eligible cases and controls were 82.