Association between maternal living in e-waste recycling site and adverse birth outcomes in Buriram, Thailand

Abstract

Each year, many electronic products are obsolete or broken resulting in large electronic waste generation. Daeng Yai subdistrict, Ban Mai Chaiyaphot District and Ban Pao subdistrict, Phutthaisong District in Buriram province were a main hub of e-waste recycling in Thailand. Exposure to common e-waste dismantling, recycling and burning could cause adverse health effects in sensitive population like pregnant women. This e-waste recycling exposure may risk them for adverse birth outcomes. In Thailand, the knowledge of relationship between adverse birth outcomes and maternal living in an e-waste recycling site was very limited. This study applied a retrospective epidemiological design to investigate the association between maternal living in e-waste recycling site and 6 adverse birth outcomes of stillbirth, very low birth weight (VLBW), low birth weight (LBW), preterm birth (PTB), intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) and all adverse birth outcomes (ABO) and estimated adjusted odds ratio (AOR) using multiple logistic regression by SAS®. The studied population were all infants whose mothers had deliverance at the Burirum hospital between 2010-2019. A number of 35,682 birth records were retrieved from the hospital and were geocoded into 2 groups regarding maternal living address: an exposed group (n = 96) in those 2 subdistricts and a reference groups in other districts (n= 35,682). For the results, we noticed that characteristics of mother and infant (maternal age, marital status, gestation age, pregnancy rate, abortion rate and infant’s sex) between two groups were not different except the marital status. Prevalences of 6 adverse birth outcomes were greater in the expose zone than those in the reference zone. Only ABO prevalence was statistically higher in the exposure zone (27.08%) than that in the reference zone (18.08%). The association between maternal living in e-waste community and all 6 adverse birth outcomes was observed but ABO was the only effect showed a statistically increased risk (AOR=1.67, 95% Cl: 1.05, 2.65). In young mothers (age ≤ 20), PTB was statistically associated with living in the e-waste site by an increased risk (AOR = 2.83, 95% CI: 1.14, 7.06). In pregnant women with single status, it showed a statistically significant increased risk in LBW (AOR=2.89, 95% Cl: 1.22, 6.84) and ABO (AOR= 2.87, 95% Cl: 1.34, 6.16). In a group of pregnant women with female infants, living inside e-waste area was considered the greatest risk of LBW as 14.49-fold higher risk than those living outside (AOR=14.49, 95% Cl: 1.74, 98.01). These findings could be used to plan for a financial support and to develop special heath care education and surveillance program to pregnant mothers living in the e-waste community with a priority to those who were single, young or having female infants to alleviate the risks. This work could be improved if exposure monitoring data were available.