Living near petrochemical industries and risks of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Growing evidence has revealed that air pollution would increase the risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); however, little is known about the effect of petrochemicals on neurodevelopment in children. We aim to evaluate the association between petrochemical exposure during pregnancy and early life and risks of ADHD in children. METHODS: We conducted a population-based birth cohort study using the 2004–2016 Taiwanese Birth Certificate Database, and verified the diagnosis of ADHD using the National Health Insurance Research Database. The petrochemical exposure in each subject’s residential township was evaluated using three approaches: distance to the nearest petrochemical industrial plants (PIPs), petrochemical exposure probability which accounts for monthly prevailing wind direction, and monthly benzene concentrations estimated by using Kriging-based land use regression models. We applied Cox proportional hazard models to evaluate the associations. RESULTS:During the study period, 49771 out of 1863963 children have been diagnosed as having ADHD. For prenatal exposure, we found that living in townships near PIPs (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.14–1.19, reference: ≥40 km) or with high benzene concentrations (HR = 1.04–1.19, reference: 0.5 ppb) during pregnancy would increase the risks of ADHD. Similar detrimental effects were also observed for petrochemical exposure during postnatal period. Furthermore, those children with high postnatal petrochemical exposure probability were also found to have increased risks for developing ADHD (HR = 1.06–1.10, reference: 10 %). CONCLUSIONS:The present work revealed that living near petrochemical industries would increase the risks of ADHD, and further studies are warranted to confirm our findings. KEYWORDS: Air pollution, Neurodevelopmental outcomes, Children's environmental health, Big data