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Environmental Exposures in Reproductive and Children's Health

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Reproductive Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2022) | Viewed by 7586

Special Issue Editors

1. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Hazards, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, 91-348 Lodz, Poland
2. Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Medical University of Lodz, 90-419 Lodz, Poland
Interests: environmental exposure; pregnancy; birth outcomes; child health; child neurodevelopment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, 91-348 Lodz, Poland
Interests: environmental exposure; poor sperm quality; poor ovarian reserve; pregnancy; birth outcomes; child health; child neurodevelopment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are organizing a Special Issue on “Environmental Exposures in Reproductive and Children’s Health” in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Despite great progress in fetal and neonatal medicine we still experience on-going epidemics of several negative pregnancy outcomes. Preterm birth, intrauterine growth restriction, and birth defects are still common. On the other hand, a substantial proportion of couples have a problem with conceiving often due to unexplained medical causes. Poor sperm quality is known as one of the reasons and recently, also poor ovarian reserve has been brought to our attention as a possible factor. Nowadays, more and more attention is paid to the long-term effects of environmental exposures during pregnancy, which can be manifested in childhood, adolescence, adult life, and even in the next generation.

In prevention of all these health conditions, it is important to recognize and properly control environmental risks. Some of them, like lead, mercury, solvents, and air pollutants (including passive smoke exposure), have been known for a long time. Others, like specific phthalates and phenols, have been recently more frequently investigated. However, still further research is needed to assess the risks in a community.

We invite investigators with interest in the topic of environmental hazards to reproduction and children’s health to contribute to our Special Issue. We hope that our common effort will contribute to the identification and ultimately elimination of environmental hazards that pose a threat to reproduction and might influence health of offspring.

Prof. Dr. Kinga Polańska
Prof. Dr. Wojciech Hanke
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • environmental hazards
  • prenatal exposure
  • poor pregnancy outcomes
  • intrauterine growth restriction
  • low sperm quality
  • low ovarian reserve
  • children’s health
  • neurodevelopmental outcomes

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 2145 KiB  
Article
Association between Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Women’s Infertility, NHANES 2013–2016
by Yuxuan Tan, Zurui Zeng, Huanzhu Liang, Xueqiong Weng, Huojie Yao, Yingyin Fu, Yexin Li, Jingmin Chen, Xiangcai Wei and Chunxia Jing
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(22), 15348; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph192215348 - 20 Nov 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3190
Abstract
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are widely used in consumer products. However, the role of PFAS in infertility is still poorly understood. A total of 788 women from the 2013–2016 nationally representative NHANES were included to explore the association between PFAS exposure and [...] Read more.
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are widely used in consumer products. However, the role of PFAS in infertility is still poorly understood. A total of 788 women from the 2013–2016 nationally representative NHANES were included to explore the association between PFAS exposure and self-reported infertility. Six PFAS, including PFDE, PFNA, PFHxS, n-PFOA, n-PFOS, and Sm-PFOS, were detected by online SPE-HPLC-TIS-MS/MS. We used the generalized linear regression model (GLM), generalized additive models (GAM), and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) to assess the single effects, non-linear relationships, and mixed effects on women’s infertility, respectively. The prevalence of self-reported infertility was 15.54% in this study. In GLM, n-PFOA showed a negative association with self-reported infertility in women for the Q3 (OR: 0.396, 95% CI: 0.119, 0.788) and Q4 (OR: 0.380, 95% CI: 0.172–0.842) compared with Q1 (p for trend = 0.013). A negative trend was also observed in n-PFOS and ∑PFOS (p for trend < 0.05). In GAM, a non-linear relationship was revealed in Sm-PFOS, which exhibits a U-shaped relationship. The BKMR model indicated that there might be a joint effect between PFAS and women’s infertility, to which PFNA contributed the highest effect (PIP = 0.435). Moreover, age stratification analysis showed a different dose–response curve in under and above 35 years old. Women under the age of 35 have a more noticeable U-shaped relationship with infertility. Therefore, the relatively low level of mixed PFAS exposure was negatively associated with self-reported infertility in women in general, and the impact of PFAS on infertility may vary among women of different age groups. Further studies are needed to determine the etiological relationship. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Exposures in Reproductive and Children's Health)
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16 pages, 813 KiB  
Article
Nitrate in Maternal Drinking Water during Pregnancy and Measures of Male Fecundity in Adult Sons
by Pernille Jul Clemmensen, Nis Brix, Jörg Schullehner, Anne Gaml-Sørensen, Gunnar Toft, Sandra Søgaard Tøttenborg, Ninna Hinchely Ebdrup, Karin Sørig Hougaard, Birgitte Hansen, Torben Sigsgaard, Henrik Albert Kolstad, Jens Peter Ellekilde Bonde and Cecilia Høst Ramlau-Hansen
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(21), 14428; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph192114428 - 03 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1464
Abstract
Animal studies indicate deleterious effects of nitrate exposure on fecundity, but effects in humans are unknown, both for the prenatal and postnatal periods. We aimed to investigate if exposure to nitrate in maternal drinking water during the sensitive period of fetal life is [...] Read more.
Animal studies indicate deleterious effects of nitrate exposure on fecundity, but effects in humans are unknown, both for the prenatal and postnatal periods. We aimed to investigate if exposure to nitrate in maternal drinking water during the sensitive period of fetal life is associated with measures of fecundity in the adult sons. In a sub-analysis, the potential effects of nitrate exposure in adulthood were investigated. This cohort included 985 young adult men enrolled in The Fetal Programming of Semen Quality Cohort (FEPOS). Semen characteristics, testes volume and reproductive hormones were analyzed in relation to nitrate concentration in maternal drinking water, using a negative binomial regression model. The nitrate concentration in drinking water was obtained from monitoring data from Danish waterworks that were linked with the mothers’ residential address during pregnancy. The median nitrate concentration in maternal drinking water was 2 mg/L. At these low exposure levels, which are far below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guideline value of 50 mg/L, we did not find indications of harmful effects of nitrate on the investigated measures of male fecundity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Exposures in Reproductive and Children's Health)
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Review

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18 pages, 531 KiB  
Review
Review of the Existing Evidence for Sex-Specific Relationships between Prenatal Phthalate Exposure and Children’s Neurodevelopment
by Agnieszka Jankowska, Linda Nazareth, Dorota Kaleta and Kinga Polanska
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(24), 13013; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijerph182413013 - 09 Dec 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2321
Abstract
Phthalates are well-known, ubiquitous environmental contaminants influencing children’s health and their neurodevelopment. However, results of the previously conducted studies are not entirely conclusive. The aim of this review is to present the current state of knowledge with respect to the association between the [...] Read more.
Phthalates are well-known, ubiquitous environmental contaminants influencing children’s health and their neurodevelopment. However, results of the previously conducted studies are not entirely conclusive. The aim of this review is to present the current state of knowledge with respect to the association between the prenatal phthalate exposure and sex-specific child neurodevelopmental outcomes. A systematic search of the literature was carried out to identify the studies that analyse the sex-specific association between prenatal exposure to phthalates and cognitive, psychomotor outcomes and behavioural and emotional problems. The search was conducted in May 2021, and it was limited to the papers published in English between January 2015 and April 2021. The following databases were used: PubMed, Scopus and Elsevier. The selection process was carried out by two independent authors according to the inclusion criteria. Of a total of 7542 records, 17 epidemiological studies met the inclusion criteria with regards to phthalate exposure and sex-specific differences in child neurobehavioural development. The review shows no clear pattern of association between maternal exposure to phthalates during pregnancy and offspring neurodevelopment. No clearly pronounced sex specific effects, except for BBzP exposure and decreased motor ablates among girls, have been indicated. Inconsistences in the results, as well as unsolved issues related to the interpretation of the results in the context of the exposure level, outcomes, confounders, and biological plausibility highlight the necessity for further research in the field. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Exposures in Reproductive and Children's Health)
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