Researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, have identified a slew of professions-including sawmill operatives, mathematicians and makeup artists, among many others-held by men in the months leading to child conception that may increase the risk of birth defects.
The researchers analyzed the job histories of 10,000 U.S. dads who had a child with one or more birth defects born between 1997 and 2004, as well as the job histories of 4,000 dads whose kids did not have birth defects. The study found that certain jobs were linked with an increased risk of multiple types of birth defects in children.
The study was published Tuesday in the Occupational & Environmental Medicine journal.
Other professions cited by the researchers that are tied to increases in birth defects include: physicists, computer scientists; artists; photographers and photo processors; food service workers; landscapers and groundskeepers; hairdressers; office and administration support workers; those working with oil and gas; those working in chemical industries; printers; those operating cranes and diggers; and drivers.
The researchers did not have information about chemicals or agents the dads may have been exposed to at their jobs that could lead to birth defects in their children, so a direct link between the professions and medical problems could not be made. Still, the researchers pointed out that occupations in which workers are commonly exposed to solvents-like artists, chemical workers, pharmacists, chemical engineers, painters, dry cleaners, printers and plumbers-were associated with an increased risk of eye, heart and intestinal defects, and oral clefts.
