Int. J. Hyg. Environ. Health 211 (2008) 50–58 Residential proximity to waste sites and industrial facilities and chromosomal anomalies in offspring Jean D. Brender a,Ã , F. Benjamin Zhan b , Peter H. Langlois c , Lucina Suarez d , Angela Scheuerle e a Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health, 201 SRPH Administration Building, College Station, TX 77843-1266, USA b Department of Geography and Texas Center for Geographic Information Science, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA c Birth Defects Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Texas Department of State Health Services, Austin, TX, USA d Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit, Texas Department of State Health Services, Austin, TX, USA e Tesserae Genetics, Dallas, TX, USA Received 29 September 2006; received in revised form 26 November 2006; accepted 28 February 2007 Abstract A few studies have found chromosomal anomalies in offspring associated with a maternal residence near waste sites, but did not examine the effect of living near industrial facilities, and most combined specific anomalies into heterogeneous groups. With a case–control study design, we investigated whether maternal residential proximity to hazardous waste sites or industrial facilities with chemical air emissions was associated with chromosomal anomalies in births. Maternal residences of 2099 Texas births with chromosomal anomalies and 4368 control births without documented malformations were related to boundaries of hazardous waste sites and street addresses of industrial facilities through geographic information systems. With adjustment for maternal age, race/ethnicity, and education, maternal residence within 1 mile of a hazardous waste site (relative to farther away) was not associated with chromosomal anomalies in offspring except for Klinefelter variants among Hispanic births (odds ratios (OR) 7.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1–42.4). Women 35 years or older who lived within 1 mile of industries with emissions of heavy metals were two times more likely (95% CI 1.1–4.1) than women living farther away to have offspring with chromosomal anomalies including trisomies 13, 18, or 21 or sex chromosome abnormalities. Among women 40 years or older, maternal residence within a mile of industries with solvent emissions was associated with chromosomal anomalies in births (OR 4.8, 95% CI 1.2–42.8). Study findings suggest some relation between residential proximity to industries with emissions of solvents or heavy metals and chromosomal anomalies in births to older mothers. r 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. Keywords: Chromosomal anomalies; Hazardous waste sites; Industrial pollution; Residential exposure; Geographic information system Background Contaminants at waste sites and in solid waste leachates are known to induce chromosomal aberrations and DNA damage in several animal models including ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.de/ijheh 1438-4639/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijheh.2007.02.009 Ã Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 979 8621573; fax: +1 979 4581877. E-mail address: jdbrender@srph.tamhsc.edu (J.D. Brender).