Prenatal exposure to environmental phenolic compounds and their association with childhood atopic dermatitis, asthma, and allergic rhinitis in the ECHO cohort

Rachel L Miller; Yuyan Wang; Jenny Aalborg; Akram N Alshawabkeh; Joseph M Braun; Carrie V Breton; Courtney C Carignan; Dana Dabelea; Anne L Dunlop; Assiamira Ferrara; Griffith Gao; Abigail Gaylord; Sarah D Geiger; Diane R Gold; Mehtap Haktanir Abul; Tina V Hartert; Julie Herbstman; Lori A Hoepner; Margaret R Karagas; Catherine J Karr; Rachel S Kelly; Camilo E Khatchikian; Mengling Liu; Kristen Lyall; John D Meeker; Rachel Morello-Frosch; Thomas G O'Connor; Jiwon Oh; Sheela Sathyanarayana; Joanne E Sordillo; Leonardo Trasande; Tracey J Woodruff; ECHO Cohort Consortium

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2025.109883

Prenatal exposure to environmental phenolic compounds and their association with childhood atopic dermatitis, asthma, and allergic rhinitis in the ECHO cohort

Environ Int. 2025 Oct 24:205:109883. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2025.109883. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Rachel L Miller¹, Yuyan Wang², Jenny Aalborg³, Akram N Alshawabkeh⁴, Joseph M Braun⁵, Carrie V Breton⁶, Courtney C Carignan⁷, Dana Dabelea⁸, Anne L Dunlop⁹, Assiamira Ferrara¹⁰, Griffith Gao¹¹, Abigail Gaylord¹², Sarah D Geiger¹³, Diane R Gold¹⁴, Mehtap Haktanir Abul¹⁵, Tina V Hartert¹⁶, Julie Herbstman¹⁷, Lori A Hoepner¹⁸, Margaret R Karagas¹⁹, Catherine J Karr²⁰, Rachel S Kelly²¹, Camilo E Khatchikian²², Mengling Liu²³, Kristen Lyall²⁴, John D Meeker²⁵, Rachel Morello-Frosch²⁶, Thomas G O'Connor²⁷, Jiwon Oh²⁸, Sheela Sathyanarayana²⁹, Joanne E Sordillo³⁰, Leonardo Trasande³¹, Tracey J Woodruff³²; ECHO Cohort Consortium

Affiliations

¹ Division of Clinical Immunology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1 Gustave L Levy Pl, New York, NY 10029, USA. Electronic address: rachel.miller2@mssm.edu.
² NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 180 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA. Electronic address: Yuyan.Wang@nyulangone.org.
³ University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, 1890 North Revere Court, 1013, Aurora, CO 80045, USA. Electronic address: jenny.aalborg@cuanschutz.edu.
⁴ College of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, 555 ISEC Building, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: a.alshawabkeh@northeastern.edu.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology, Brown University, Box G-S121(2), Providence RI 02912, USA. Electronic address: joseph_braun_1@brown.edu.
⁶ Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, 1845 N Soto St., Los Angeles CA 90032, USA. Electronic address: breton@usc.edu.
⁷ Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University, G.M. Trout Food Science Building, 469 Wilson Road, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. Electronic address: carigna4@msu.edu.
⁸ LEAD Center, University of Colorado School of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Campus Box F426, AHSB, 1890 N. Revere Ct., Aurora, CO 80045-7464, USA. Electronic address: dana.dabelea@cuanschutz.edu.
⁹ Department of Gynecology & Obstetrics, Emory University School of Medicine, 101 Woodruff Circle, Rm 4313 Woodruff Memorial Building Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. Electronic address: amlang@emory.edu.
¹⁰ Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, 4480 Hacienda Drive, Pleasanton, CA 94588-2761, USA. Electronic address: Assiamira.Ferrara@kp.org.
¹¹ Northeastern University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: q.gao@northeastern.edu.
¹² Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 722 W 168th St, New York, NY 10032, USA. Electronic address: alg2215@cumc.columbia.edu.
¹³ Department of Health and Kinesiology, University of Illinois, The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, 405 N Mathews Ave, Urbana IL 61801, USA. Electronic address: smurphy7@illinois.edu.
¹⁴ Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Ave, Boston MA 02115, USA; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 181 Longwood, Boston MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: redrg@channing.harvard.edu.
¹⁵ Brown University Health, 593 Eddy Street, Providence, RI 02903, USA. Electronic address: mehtap_haktanir_abul@brown.edu.
¹⁶ Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, 2525 West End Ave, Suite 450, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37203, USA. Electronic address: tina.hartert@vumc.org.
¹⁷ Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, 722 W168th Street, New York, NY 10032, USA. Electronic address: jh2678@cumc.columbia.edu.
¹⁸ SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, 445 Lenox Road, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA. Electronic address: Lori.Hoepner@downstate.edu.
¹⁹ Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, 1 Medical Center Drive, Williamson Translational Research Building, 7th Floor, Lebanon, NH 03756, USA. Electronic address: margaret.r.karagas@dartmouth.edu.
²⁰ University of Washington, Departments of Pediatrics & Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, 4225 Roosevelt Way NE, Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98105, USA. Electronic address: ckarr@uw.edu.
²¹ Channing Division of Network Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 181 Longwood, Boston MA 02115, USA.
²² Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, 1 Medical Center Drive, Williamson Translational Research Building, 7th Floor, Lebanon, NH 03756, USA. Electronic address: camilo.Khatchikian@dartmouth.edu.
²³ NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Department of Population Health 180 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA. Electronic address: Mengling.Liu@nyulangone.org.
²⁴ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Drexel University, 3215 Market St Philadelphia PA 19104, USA. Electronic address: kld98@drexel.edu.
²⁵ Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, USA. Electronic address: meekerj@umich.edu.
²⁶ School of Public Health and Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, 130 Mulford Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3114, USA. Electronic address: rmf@berkeley.edu.
²⁷ Departments of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Rochester, 300 Crittenden Blvd, Rochester, NY 14642 USA. Electronic address: tom_oconnor@urmc.rochester.edu.
²⁸ Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California Davis Medical Sciences 1-C, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA. Electronic address: jiwoh@ucdavis.edu.
²⁹ Department of Pediatrics, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Center for Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, 4800 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105, USA. Electronic address: sheela.sathyanarayana@seattlechildrens.org.
³⁰ Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Institute, Harvard Medical School, 401 Park Drive, Suite 401 East, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Electronic address: joanne.e.sordillo@gmail.com.
³¹ NYU Grossman School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, 227 E 30th St Rm 615, New York NY 10016, USA. Electronic address: Leonardo.Trasande@nyulangone.org.
³² Program on Reproductive Health & the Environment, University of California San Francisco, Box: 0132, Bldg: 550 16th Street, Room: 7330, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA. Electronic address: Tracey.Woodruff@ucsf.edu.

PMID: 41161078
DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2025.109883

Abstract

Phenolic compounds may be harmful to the developing fetus, but many have not been studied in-depth for adverse childhood allergic and respiratory health effects. We hypothesized that higher levels of phenolic compounds in prenatal spot urine would be associated with greater odds of childhood atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, and asthma, and that child sex may modify these associations. 3198 mother-child paired cases were enrolled from 16 cohorts in the U.S. ECHO consortium. Fifteen phenols (e.g. benzophenones, parabens, bisphenols, triclosans) were measured from mother's urine during pregnancy using a multi-class chemical panel. Childhood outcomes included parent-reported atopic dermatitis (1466 mother-child pairs) between ages 0-3 years, and allergic rhinitis (901 mother-child pairs) and asthma (1662 mother-child pairs) between ages 5-9 years. Prenatal parabens were associated with increased odds of atopic dermatitis (odds ratio (OR) 1.13, 95 % confidence intervals (CI) 1.02, 1.26). Benzophenones were associated with lower odds of asthma (OR 0.77, CI 0.66, 0.90). Compared to boys, girls demonstrated higher odds of parabens (1.21, CI 1.04, 1.42), benzophenones (1.18, CI 1.00, 1.38) and bisphenol S (1.21, CI 1.03, 1.43) being associated with atopic dermatitis, and of the benzophenones (1.46, CI 1.11, 1.93) being associated with allergic rhinitis. An association of benzophenones (0.66, CI 0.53, 0.83) with lower odds of asthma was stronger among boys. These findings suggest that prenatal paraben and other phenol exposures may adversely affect early-life allergic and respiratory outcomes, with sex-specific vulnerability. Novel, multi-modality approaches to reduce maternal phenol exposure during pregnancy are urgently needed to protect children's health.

Keywords: Bisphenols; Childhood allergy; Childhood asthma; Parabens; Phenols; Prenatal exposure; Triclosan.