American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 135, No. 9: 1000-1011
Copyright © 1992 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
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Congental Defects and Electric Bed Heating in New York State: A Register-based Case-Control Study
1Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo Buffalo, NY.
2Division of Nutrition, Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control Atlanta, GA.
3Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories Richland, WA.
4Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine New Haven, CT.
5Bureau of Environmental Epidemiology and Occupational Health, New York State Department of Health Albany, NY.
Reprint requests to Dr. Larry Dlugosz, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, 60 College Street, New Haven, CT 06510 (present address).
Exposure to 60-cycle electromagnetic fields has been hypothesized to be a cause of childhood cancer and congenital defects. Because electric bed heaters are a major source of variation in electromagnetic field exposure in the population, the authors conducted a case-control study in 1988–1989 to examine the relations between congenital defects and the use of electric blankets and heated waterbeds. Cases were identified by the New York State Congenital Malformations Registry as babies with cleft palate (n = 121), cleft lip with or without cleft palate (n = 197), born in 1983–1984, and anencephalus and spina bifida (n = 224), born in 1983–1986, all to upstate New York residents. Controls were selected at random from birth registrations individually matched to cases by maternal race, age, home county, month of last menses, and child‘s sex. Information on periconceptional electric blanket and heated waterbed use as well as known and suspected risk factors for defects was obtained from questionnaires mailed to the mothers. Matched odds ratio estimates and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for electric blanket use relative to nonuse were 0.8 (95% Cl 0.3–2.1) for cleft palate, 0.7 (95% Cl 0.3–1.3) for cleft lip, and 0.9 (95% Cl 0.5–1.6) for neural tube defects. The respective odds ratios for heated waterbed use were nearly identical to these. Adjustment for potential confounding factors (maternal education, vitamin use, smoking) and stratification by season of conception and bed heat control setting had no meaningful effect on odds ratios. These results suggest that 60-cycle fields do not cause neural tube and oral cleft defects. Am J Epidemiol 1992; 135: 1000–11
abnormalities; electromagnetics; neural tube defects; pregnancy
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