Reproductive outcomes among former Love Canal residents, Niagara Falls, New York.

Love Canal, located in Niagara Falls, NY, and among the earliest and most significant hazardous waste sites in the United States, first came to public attention in 1978. In this study, researchers evaluated 1,799 live births from 1960 through 1996 to 980 women who formerly lived in the Love Canal Emergency Declaration Area and were of reproductive age sometime during that time period. Using Upstate New York and Niagara County as external comparison populations, standardized incidence ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated for low birth weight, preterm birth, small for gestational age, and congenital malformations, and unadjusted proportions of male to female births were calculated.

Concentrations of selected organochlorines and chlorobenzenes in the serum of former Love Canal residents, Niagara Falls, New York.

Background: Love Canal, in Niagara Falls, NY is among the earliest and most significant hazardous waste sites in the USA, but no study has ever measured chemical body burdens in nearby residents to document that human exposure occurred. This study measured concentrations of selected organochlorines and chlorinated benzenes in archived serum samples collected from former Love Canal residents.

Methods: We analyzed serum samples collected from 373 former residents in 1978-1979 for compounds disposed of at Love Canal, and we compared their concentrations according to surrogate indicators of exposure such as residential proximity, adjusting for potential confounders.

Cancer incidence among former Love Canal residents.

Background: The Love Canal was a rectangular 16-acre, 10-ft-deep chemical waste landfill situated in a residential neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York. This seriously contaminated site came to public attention in 1978. Only one prior study examined cancer incidence in former residents of the Love Canal neighborhood (LC).

Mortality among former Love Canal residents.

Background: The Love Canal is a rectangular 16-acre, 10-ft deep chemical waste landfill situated in a residential neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York. This seriously contaminated site first came to public attention in 1978. No studies have examined mortality in the former residents of the Love Canal neighborhood (LC).

Maternal caffeine consumption and risk of cardiovascular malformations.

Background: The physiologic effects and common use of caffeine during pregnancy call for examination of maternal caffeine consumption and risk of birth defects. Epidemiologic studies have yielded mixed results, but such studies have grouped etiologically different defects and have not evaluated effect modification.

Methods: The large sample size and precise case classification of the National Birth Defects Prevention Study allowed us to examine caffeine consumption and specific cardiovascular malformation (CVM) case groups.

Problems in using birth certificate files in the capture-recapture model to estimate the completeness of case ascertainment in a population-based birth defects registry in New York State.

Background: The limitations and underlying assumptions of the capture-recapture methods have hindered their application in epidemiological settings, especially in evaluating the completeness of birth defects registries. This study explored the possibility of using birth certificates as the secondary data source in a simple two-source capture-recapture model to estimate the completeness of case ascertainment of the Congenital Malformations Registry (CMR) for selected major birth defects.

Methods: The CMR and the birth certificates were used as the primary and secondary sources, respectively.

Down syndrome: interaction between culture, demography, and biology in determining the prevalence of a genetic trait.

The incidence of Down syndrome (DS) at conception is highly dependent upon the maternal age distribution and age-specific pregnancy rates. Live-birth prevalence of DS reflects these factors and fetal deaths. Since the introduction of prenatal diagnosis in the early 1970s, the role of fetal deaths in the equation has increased.