January 9, 2014

Anneclaire De Roos, PhD, MPH, an Associate Professor at the Drexel University School of Public Health, was a coauthor of the article “Organochlorine Pesticides and Risk of Endometriosis: Findings from a Population-Based Case–Control Study,” which was published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

The objective of the study discussed in this article was to investigate the risk of endometriosis, which is considered an estrogen-dependent disease, in relation to environmental exposure to organochlorine pesticides (OCPs).

The authors conducted the present analyses using data from the Women’s Risk of Endometriosis (WREN) study, a population-based case–control study of endometriosis conducted among 18- to 49-year-old female enrollees of a large health care system in western Washington State.

The authors concluded that in their case-control study serum concentrations of β-HCH and mirex were positively associated with endometriosis.  The authors also concluded that extensive past use of environmentally persistent OCPs in the U.S., or present use in other countries, may affect the health of reproductive-age women.

The lead author was Kristen Upson, PhD, who was a research fellow at the University of Washington School of Public Health when the study was conducted.  Additional coauthors included Mary Lou Thompson, PhD; Sheela Sathyanarayana, MD, MPH; Delia Scholes, PhD; and Vicoria L. Holt, PhD, MPH, from the University of Washington School of Public Health, as well as Dr. Dana Boyd Barr from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.

Photo Credit: tn.gov/agriculture/regulatory/aip.shtml