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ABSTRACT
Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are environmental chemicals bio-accumulating through the food chain. POPs can affect the foetal development of the immune, the neural and the reproductive system. POPs are endocrine disruptors and shown to interfere with child vaccination responses. Our hypothesis is that POPs interfere with the immune system increasing the risk of asthma, allergy and eczema. In a pilot cross-sectional study, we sent 120 questionnaires to Inuit mothers to elucidate the relation between smoking during pregnancy and the risk of child asthma, allergy and eczema, and the possible modifying effect of breastfeeding. Fifty-one mothers responded. We found that the risk of getting allergy among the offspring was higher when the mother had been smoking during pregnancy and the child being breastfed <12 months (OR = 5.67, 95% CI: 0.754; 42.58, p = 0.092). Furthermore, we found that children with eczema were predisposed of having asthma (OR = 19.6, 95% CI: 2.19; 176, p = 0.008), also allergy when breastfed >12 months (OR = 17.0, 95% CI: 1.02; 283, p = 0.048).
Abbreviation: ACCEPT (Adaptation to Climate Change, Environmental Pollution, and Dietary Transition).
Acknowledgments
The authors thank all those who have contributed to the reported data including co-workers at the Centre for Arctic Health & Molecular Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, University of Aarhus, Denmark and the Greenlandic mothers and offspring. We also thank for the midwives and hospital staff at Dronning Ingrid Hospital Nuuk and coast hospitals, Greenland. Furthermore, the authors thank the Psychiatric Research Unit West, Herning, Denmark, who gave financial support to the writing of this short communication.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.