BUFFALO, NY -- Women who regularly eat fish from Lake Ontario, known to be contaminated with PCBs and other hormone disrupting chemicals, may be about 25 percent less likely to become pregnant than women who do not, researchers from the University at Buffalo have found.
Results of the 1991-1994 study were reported June 30 by Environmental News Service. The study is possibly the first epidemiologic assessment of consumption of contaminated fish and human fertility.
Germaine Buck, Ph.D., professor of Social and Preventive Medicine in the University of Buffalo's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, directed the study.
The study was based on female participants in The New York State Angler Cohort Study who were considering pregnancy between 1991-94. The angler study in 1991 set out to measure the health consequences of eating fish from Lake Ontario, known to be the most polluted of the Great Lakes. Results showed that women who had eaten Lake Ontario fish for three to six years, and those who had more than one meal of such fish per month in 1991, were 25 percent less likely to become pregnant each month than women who did not eat fish from that lake. However, all women in this study did eventually conceive, Buck noted. Women of childbearing age have been advised not to eat fish from Lake Ontario since 1976.
The July issue of "Epidemiology" covers the results in more detail.
