New York State Angler Cohort Study: Exposure and Reproductive and Developmental Health
Title: The Great Lakes Research Program
(referred as Angler Cohort study)
Principal Investigator: John Vena, PhD
Funding Agency: Agency for Toxic Subtances and Disease Registry and CDC
Period: 09/30/03 - 03/29/05
- 07/01/90 - 09/29/03
Title: New York Angler Cohort Study: Exposure Characterization and Reproductive and Developmental Health
Abstract: The goals of the New York State Angler Cohort Study are threefold:
1) to characterize exposure to persistent toxic contaminants through consumption of Lake Ontario sport fish;
2) to evaluate knowledge of fish consumption advisories and health risk perception; and
3) to conduct epidemiological studies of reproductive and developmental health.
This research attempts to evaluate the association between past and current consumption of contaminated fish from Lake Ontario and both short- and long-term health effects in a population-based cohort. It will measure fish consumption and reproductive and developmental health among 10,518 male anglers and 6,651 of their wives or partners, as well as among 913 female anglers. To characterize exposure among subgroups of the cohort, further analytical methods were developed and implemented to measure specific poly- chlorinatedbiphenyls (PCB) congeners, methylmercury and other substances in biological samples.
Some details of the research include: study of duck and turtle consumers; telephone interviews with 2,454 of the 2,999 women who planned a pregnancy between 1991 and 1994; matching of the entire cohort of male anglers, partners of male anglers, and female anglers with the New York State live birth and fetal death registries to obtain lifetime reproductive histories; and medical record abstraction to assess perinatal and developmental outcomes among the 3,442 births that occurred between 1986 and 1991.
