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Robin M. Whyatt,¹ Virginia Rauh,¹ Dana B. Barr,² David E. Camann,³ Howard F. Andrews,¹ Robin Garfinkel,¹ Lori A. Hoepner,¹ Diurka Diaz,¹ Jessica Dietrich,¹ Andria Reyes,¹ Deliang Tang,¹ Patrick L. Kinney,¹ and Frederica P. Perera¹

¹Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA; ²National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; ³Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA

Abstract
We reported previously that insecticide exposures were widespread among minority women in New York City during pregnancy and that levels of the organophosphate chlorpyrifos in umbilical cord plasma were inversely associated with birth weight and length. Here we expand analyses to include additional insecticides (the organophosphate diazinon and the carbamate propoxur) , a larger sample size (n = 314 mother-newborn pairs) , and insecticide measurements in maternal personal air during pregnancy as well as in umbilical cord plasma at delivery. Controlling for potential confounders, we found no association between maternal personal air insecticide levels and birth weight, length, or head circumference. For each log unit increase in cord plasma chlorpyrifos levels, birth weight decreased by 42.6 g [95% confidence interval (CI) , -81.8 to -3.8, p = 0.03] and birth length decreased by 0.24 cm (95% CI, -0.47 to -0.01, p = 0.04) . Combined measures of (ln) cord plasma chlorpyrifos and diazinon (adjusted for relative potency) were also inversely associated with birth weight and length (p < 0.05) . Birth weight averaged 186.3 g less (95% CI, -375.2 to -45.5) among newborns with the highest compared with lowest 26% of exposure levels (p = 0.01) . Further, the associations between birth weight and length and cord plasma chlorpyrifos and diazinon were highly significant (p 0.007) among newborns born before the 2000-2001 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory actions to phase out residential use of these insecticides. Among newborns born after January 2001, exposure levels were substantially lower, and no association with fetal growth was apparent (p > 0.8) . The propoxur metabolite 2-isopropoxyphenol in cord plasma was inversely associated with birth length, a finding of borderline significance (p = 0.05) after controlling for chlorpyrifos and diazinon. Results indicate that prenatal chlorpyrifos exposures have impaired fetal growth among this minority cohort and that diazinon exposures may have contributed to the effects. Findings support recent regulatory action to phase out residential uses of the insecticides. Key words: birth length, birth weight, insecticides, minority, prenatal, residential, urban, women. Environ Health Perspect 112:1125-1132 (2004) . doi:10.1289/ehp.6641 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 22 March 2004]

Address correspondence to R.M. Whyatt, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 60 Haven Ave., B-109, New York, NY 10032 USA. Telephone: (646) 459-9609. Fax: (646) 459-9610. E-mail: rmw5@columbia.edu

We acknowledge the OB/GYN staffs at Harlem and New York Presbyterian Hospitals, D. Holmes, M. Borjas, J. Lai, L. Qu, and X. Jin.

This work was supported by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences P50 ES09600, RO1 ES08977, RO1 ES11158, and RO1 ES06722 ; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency R827027, R8260901, and R82860901 ; Irving General Clinical Research Center RR00645 ; Bauman Family Foundation ; Gladys and Roland Harriman Foundation ; Hansen Foundation ; W. Alton Jones Foundation ; New York Community Trust ; Educational Foundation of America ; The New York Times Company Foundation ; Rockefeller Financial Services ; Horace W. Smith Foundation ; Beldon Fund ; The John Merck Fund ; September 11th Fund of the United Way and New York Community Trust ; The New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund ; and V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation.

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 6 August 2003 ; accepted 22 March 2004.