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Updated: Jun 23, 2026
Long-term Behavioral and Reproductive Consequences of Embryonic Exposure to Low-dose Toxicants
Published on: March 6, 2018
Correlations between prenatal exposure to perfluorinated chemicals and reduced fetal growth
Noriaki Washino1, Yasuaki Saijo, Seiko Sasaki
1Department of Public Health, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan.
Background:
Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) are man-made, ubiquitous, and persistent contaminants in the environment, wildlife, and humans. Although recent studies have shown that these chemicals interfere with fetal growth in humans, the results are inconsistent.
Objectives:
Our goal was to investigate the correlation between relatively low levels of PFOS and PFOA in maternal serum and birth weight and birth size.
Methods:
We conducted a hospital-based prospective cohort study between July 2002 and October 2005 in Sapporo, Japan. A total of 428 women and their infants were involved in the study. We obtained characteristics of the mothers and infants from self-administered questionnaire surveys and from medical records. We analyzed maternal serum samples for PFOS and PFOA by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS).
Results:
After adjusting for confounding factors, PFOS levels negatively correlated with birth weight [per log10 unit: beta = -148.8 g; 95% confidence interval (CI), -297.0 to -0.5 g]. In addition, analyses stratified by sex revealed that PFOS levels negatively correlated with birth weight only in female infants (per log10 unit: beta = -269.4 g; 95% CI, -465.7 to -73.0 g). However, we observed no correlation between PFOA levels and birth weight.
Conclusion:
Our results indicate that in utero exposure to relatively low levels of PFOS was negatively correlated with birth weight.
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