Maternal environmental, occupational, and urinary metabolite levels of benzene compounds and their association with congenital heart diseases in offspring: a case‒control study in China

The conclusions about the association of maternal pregnancy environment, occupation, and benzene compounds with fetal CHD are not entirely consistent. Eight hundred seven CHD cases and 1008 controls were included in this study. All occupations were classified and coded against the Occupational Classification Dictionary of the People’s Republic of China (2015 version). Logistic regressions were used to explore the correlation among environmental factors, occupation types, and CHDs in offspring. We found that living near public facilities and having exposure to chemical reagents and hazardous substances were significant risk factors for CHDs in offspring. We found that offspring of mothers who worked in agriculture and similar work during pregnancy suffered from CHD. The risk of all CHDs in the offspring of pregnant women working in production manufacturing and related work was significantly higher than that in unemployed pregnant women, the risk was also observed in 4 subtypes of CHDs. We compared the concentrations of the five metabolite (MA, mHA, HA, PGA, and SPMA) levels of benzene compounds in the urine of mothers in case and control groups and found no significant differences. Our study suggests that maternal exposure during pregnancy and certain environmental and occupational conditions are risk factors for CHD in offspring, but did not support an association between concentrations of metabolites of benzene compounds in the urine of pregnant women and CHDs in their offspring. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-023-27015-z.