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Updated: Aug 2, 2026
Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Based Developmental Toxicity Assays for Chemical Safety Screening and Systems Biology Data Generation
Published on: June 17, 2015
Effect of trihalomethane exposure on fetal development
J M Wright1, J Schwartz, D W Dockery
1Environmental Epidemiology Program, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. wright.michael@epa.gov
Aims:
To examine the effect of trimester specific and pregnancy average total trihalomethane (TTHM) exposure on infant birth weight, low birth weight, and intrauterine growth retardation in term births, as well as gestational age and preterm delivery in all births.
Methods:
Cross sectional analysis of 56 513 singleton infants born to residents of Massachusetts during 1990. City specific aggregate data were used to estimate maternal exposure to TTHM concentration; individual maternal information was used to adjust for confounding.
Results:
Increased pregnancy average and second trimester TTHM exposure were associated with small for gestational age and reductions in birth weight after adjusting for potential confounding variables. Compared to
Conclusions:
Maternal exposure to THMs may be associated with fetal growth retardation. Our findings are consistent with most previous work, although we generally found smaller effects of TTHMs on low birth weight and intrauterine growth retardation.
