[Effect of early pregnancy electromagnetic field exposure on embryo growth ceasing]

Abstract

Objective: To study the effect of electromagnetic exposure during the first three months of pregnancy on embryo growth ceasing.

Methods: The cases were defined as embryo growth ceasing, exclude the cases caused by maternal chromosomal abnormalities, maternal and child exclusion and genital malformations. The controls were selected in the termly delivery puerperas with normal newborn in the same hospital and matched by age (+/- 2 years). The analysis was conduct based on the interview of 138 embryo growth ceasing cases and the matched control (age +/- 2 years) by using multifactor conditional Logistic regression analysis.

Results: The proportion of watching TV, using mobile telephone, using copycat > or =6 minutes/week or microwave oven, electromagnetic equipment near the dwell or work place, e.g., high voltage line < or =100 m, switch room < or = 50 m and launching tower < or = 500 m in the cases is significantly higher than the controls in single factor analysis. But after adjusted the effect of other risk factors by multifactor analysis, only watching TV and using mobile telephone during the first term of pregnancy were associated with risk of embryo growth ceasing. The odds ratios of these risk factors were 6.82 (95% CI: 1.86-25.08) and 6.02 (95% CI: 1.92 -18.91) respectively.

Conclusion: Watching TV and using mobile telephone during the first term of pregnancy maybe increase the risk of embryo growth ceasing significantly, in particular the high-risk pregnant women with embryo growth ceasing history. Suggest pregnant woman do not use the appliances for a long time or do the safety protection when using the appliances, e.g., distance protection.