Industrial Developmental Toxicants and Congenital Heart Disease in Urban and Rural Alberta, Canada

• Main Authors: Deliwe P. Ngwezi, Lisa K. Hornberger, Jesus Serrano-Lomelin, Charlene C. Nielsen, Deborah Fruitman, Alvaro Osornio-Vargas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-07-01
• Series: Challenges
• Subjects: congenital heart disease; developmental toxicants; air pollution; industrial emissions; planetary health; National Pollutant Release Inventory
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/9/2/26

The etiology of congenital heart defects (CHD) is not known for many affected patients. In the present study, we examined the association between industrial emissions and CHD in urban and rural Alberta. We acquired the emissions data reported in the Canadian National Pollutant Release Inventory (n = 18) and identified CHD patients born in Alberta from 2003–2010 (n = 2413). We identified three groups of emissions after principal component analysis: Groups 1, 2, and 3. The distribution of exposure to the postal codes with births was determined using an inverse distance weighted approach. Poisson or negative binomial regression models helped estimate associations (relative risk (RR), 95% Confidence Intervals (CI)) adjusted for socioeconomic status and two criteria pollutants: nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter with a mean aerodynamic diameter of ≤2.5 micrometers. The adjusted RR in urban settings was 1.8 (95% CI: 1.5, 2.3) for Group 1 and 1.4 (95% CI: 1.3, 1.6) for both Groups 2 and 3. In rural postal codes, Groups 1 and 3 emissions had a RR of 2.6 (95% CI: 1.03, 7). Associations were only observed in postal codes with the highest levels of emissions and maps demonstrated that regions with very high exposures were sparse.