People living near landfill sites have an increased risk of adverse birth outcomes

There is a small excess risk of congenital abnormalities, such as neural tube defects, cardiovascular defects, abdominal wall defects, hypospadias and epispadias, and low and very low birth weight in populations living near landfill sites in Great Britain. However, there is no increase in the number of stillbirths. Some 80% of the British population lives within 2 km of a known landfill site. Elliott and colleagues (p 363) included all the landfill sites in the country in their analysis but found no causal mechanism to explain their results. Alternative explanations include data artefacts and residual confounding.

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Relevant Article

Risk of adverse birth outcomes in populations living near landfill sites

Paul Elliott, David Briggs, Sara Morris, Cornelis de Hoogh, Christopher Hurt, Tina Kold Jensen, Ian Maitland, Sylvia Richardson, Jon Wakefield, and Lars Jarup
BMJ 2001 323: 363-368. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]