Peer-reviewed article
Prenatal exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides and childhood allergic disease trajectories: A nationwide risk assessment from the JECS birth cohort.
Yamamoto-Hanada K, Yang L, Harama D, Sato M, Miyaji Y et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined whether exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides during pregnancy affects the development of allergic diseases in Japanese children. Researchers measured insecticide levels in the urine of nearly 8,900 pregnant women and tracked their children's atopic dermatitis and wheeze symptoms from ages 1 to 6 years. The study found no clear link between prenatal exposure to these widely-used pesticides and childhood allergic disease patterns, though this may be because exposure levels in Japan were relatively low.
Key points
- Four distinct disease trajectory patterns were identified for both atopic dermatitis and wheeze in early childhood
- Some individual associations between neonicotinoid exposure and specific disease trajectories were observed, but none remained statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons
- Prenatal neonicotinoid exposure at current environmental levels in Japan was not consistently associated with allergic disease trajectories
- The study analysed approximately 8,900 mother-child pairs from a nationwide Japanese birth cohort
- Results may not apply to populations with higher background neonicotinoid exposure levels
Limitations
The study was conducted in Japan where neonicotinoid exposure is relatively low, so findings may not generalise to populations with higher environmental exposure. The study cannot determine causality or identify effects of neonicotinoid exposure in settings with higher contamination levels.
Abstract
Background Neonicotinoid insecticides are widely used globally, raising concerns about their impact on human health, particularly during the vulnerable prenatal period. However, long-term epidemiological evidence regarding their role in childhood allergic disease development remains unclear. This study evaluated the association between prenatal neonicotinoid exposure and longitudinal trajectories of atopic dermatitis (AD) and wheeze in early childhood to provide data for environmental risk assessment. Methods Using data from the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS), we analyzed a nationwide sub-cohort of approximately 8,900 mother-child pairs. Neonicotinoid concentrations were measured in maternal urine during early and mid-pregnancy. Disease trajectories (1-6 years) for AD and wheeze were identified using Latent Class Growth Analysis (LCGA). Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate the association between exposure levels and trajectory phenotypes, focusing on the impact of background environmental exposure. Results Four distinct trajectories were identified for both AD and wheeze. In the multivariable analyses, several nominal associations were observed (e.g., ACE and late-onset AD: aOR 1.67, 95 % CI 1.09-2.54); however, none remained statistically significant after Benjamini-Hochberg correction. Overall, prenatal exposure to neonicotinoids at current environmental levels in Japan was not consistently associated with any specific trajectory of AD or wheeze. Conclusion We found no robust and consistent evidence of an association between prenatal neonicotinoid exposure and childhood atopic dermatitis or wheeze trajectories in this Japanese cohort under relatively low background exposure conditions. Further studies in populations with different exposure profiles are warranted.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Measurement of prenatal neonicotinoid exposure and longitudinal tracking of allergic disease trajectories
- Population
- Approximately 8,900 mother-child pairs from the Japan Environment and Children's Study cohort
Key finding
Four distinct trajectories identified for both atopic dermatitis and wheeze
K et al. · Europe PMC · 10 Sept 2026