TY - JOUR T1 - Prenatal exposure to environmental contaminants and asthma and eczema in school-age children JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 44 IS - Suppl 58 SP - 2918 AU - Lidwien A.M. Smit AU - Virissa Lenters AU - Birgit Bjerre Høyer AU - Christian H. Lindh AU - Henning S. Pedersen AU - Iuliia Lermontova AU - Bo A.G. Jönsson AU - Aldert H. Piersma AU - Jens Peter Bonde AU - Gunnar Toft AU - Roel Vermeulen AU - Dick Heederik Y1 - 2014/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/2918.abstract N2 - Background Emerging evidence suggests that prenatal or early-life exposures to environmental contaminants may contribute to an increased risk of asthma and allergies in children.Aim We explored associations of prenatal exposures to a large set of environmental contaminants with asthma and eczema symptoms in school-age children from a birth cohort in Greenland (n=572) and Ukraine (n=607).Methods Data were collected by means of an interview-based questionnaire when the children were 6-9 years of age. Questions from the ISAAC study were used to define asthma, eczema, and wheeze. We applied principal components analysis (PCA) to sixteen contaminants in maternal serum sampled during pregnancy, including perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), metabolites of diethylhexyl (DEHP) and diisononyl (DiNP) phthalates, PCB-153 and p,p´-DDE. Scores of five components (PCs) explaining 70% of the variance were included in multiple logistic regression models.Results The PC3 score (reflective of DEHP metabolites) was positively associated with wheeze in Ukrainian children (current wheeze: OR 1.57, 95%CI 1.04-2.38; ever wheeze: OR 1.32, 0.97-1.78). The PC5 score (dominated by perfluorooctanoic acid, PFOA) was inversely associated with current wheeze (OR 0.63, 0.40-0.99). In children from Greenland, negative associations of PC2 (DiNP metabolites) with current eczema (OR 0.63, 0.40-1.00) and PC4 (organochlorines) with ever eczema (OR 0.76, 0.60-0.95) were found.Conclusion We found limited evidence to support a link between prenatal exposure to measured contaminants and an increased risk of asthma and eczema symptoms in school-age children. ER -