Public Health Department, School of Medicine, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Carrera 32 No. 29-31 Oficina 310, Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia.
Medicine and Health Sciences Department, Universidad de Sonora, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico.
Environ Geochem Health. 2019 Oct;41(5):2169-2178. doi: 10.1007/s10653-019-00275-w. Epub 2019 Mar 14.
The contamination of the Sonora River with 40,000 m of toxic leachate released from a copper mine on August 6, 2014, was considered the worst environmental disaster of the mining industry in Mexico, exceeding safety levels in the concentrations of heavy metals and arsenic. To explore the potential association of the toxic release with subfecundity, by comparing time to pregnancy (TTP) of women with different levels of exposure at municipalities located along the Sonora River watershed, just 35 km south of the Arizona-Mexico border. Data from 235 pregnancies were included in a retrospective cohort study. Exposure was measured whether pregnancy occurred before or after the disaster and included a non-exposed community outside the watershed. Pregnancies were also compared between communities according to the concentration-level gradient of water pollutants found in the river. Fecundability odds ratios (fORs) were calculated using discrete time analogue of Cox's proportional hazard models. Multiple analysis included all pregnancies with TTP of no more than 12 months, only first-time pregnancy, or excluding women with TTP = 1. The probability for pregnancy decreased after the disaster (fOR 0.55, 95% CI 0.31, 0.97), when the residency was located mid-or-downstream the watershed (fOR 0.37, 95% CI 0.15, 0.91), when reported chicken consumption, when mining was the father's occupation, and when surface water was reported to be used for crop irrigation and for animal consumption. There was a decrease in fecundity on women exposed to the contaminated river. There is a need for more studies to prove these findings and to broaden the knowledge of other possible adverse health effects associated with this environmental disaster.
2014 年 8 月 6 日，一家铜矿释放了 4 万立方米有毒渗漏液，污染了索诺拉河，这被认为是墨西哥采矿业最严重的环境灾难，其重金属和砷浓度超过了安全标准。为了探索有毒物质释放与生育力低下之间的潜在关联，研究人员比较了位于索诺拉河流域的各城市中不同暴露水平的妇女的妊娠时间（TTP），这些城市距离亚利桑那州-墨西哥边境以南仅 35 公里。这项回顾性队列研究纳入了 235 例妊娠。暴露水平是根据暴露发生在灾难之前还是之后来衡量的，包括流域之外一个未受污染的社区。还根据河流中发现的水污染物浓度梯度比较了各社区之间的妊娠情况。使用 Cox 比例风险模型的离散时间模拟计算了可育性比值比（fOR）。多因素分析包括 TTP 不超过 12 个月的所有妊娠、首次妊娠或排除 TTP=1 的女性。灾难发生后妊娠的可能性降低（fOR 0.55，95%CI 0.31，0.97），当居住地位于流域的中游或下游时（fOR 0.37，95%CI 0.15，0.91），当报告有食用鸡肉时、当矿业是父亲的职业时，以及当地表水被用于灌溉作物和动物饮用时。暴露于受污染河流的妇女的生育力下降。需要进一步研究来证实这些发现，并扩大对与这一环境灾难相关的其他可能不良健康影响的认识。
