• Florencia Anunziata, Madison Chapman, Erin Delker, Shana Hayes, Miguel Del Campo, Rebecca J Baer, and Gretchen Bandoli.
• Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. Electronic address: fanunziata@health.ucsd.edu.
• Prev Med. 2024 Sep 1; 186: 108080108080.

PurposeLimited research examines birth defects from maternal or paternal firefighting exposure. This study aims to assess if maternal or paternal occupational exposure to firefighting during periconception is associated with offspring birth defects.MethodsData from California birth certificates (2007-2019) were linked to maternal / offspring hospitalization records. Occupation during the periconceptional period was categorized from vital statistics as the following: paternal non-firefighting (n = 4,135,849), paternal firefighting (n = 22,732), maternal non-firefighting (n = 3,332,255) and maternal firefighting (n = 502). Birth defects were identified using ICD codes, grouped by anatomical regions. Adjusted odds ratios were estimated, and sensitivity analyses explored police officer reference groups and detailed birth defect categories.ResultsOffspring of paternal firefighters had lower odds of circulatory defects (aOR = 0.9, 95% CI 0.8, 1.0), oral clefts (aOR = 0.6, 95% CI 0.4, 0.8) and respiratory defects (0.7, 95% CI 0.6, 0.9) compared to paternal non-firefighters. Associations between maternal firefighting and offspring birth defects were imprecise. Substituting police officers as the reference group attenuated findings.ConclusionsOffspring of paternal firefighters may have similar or slightly lower birth defect odds compared to offspring of non-firefighters. Limited data was available for assessing maternal firefighting outcomes. Future studies should prioritize studies using occupational exposure matrices to limit misclassification of exposure.Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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