The Effect of Maternal Exposure to Textile Industry-Induced Pollution on Pregnancy and Its Outcome

Background: Inside textile mills, pregnant women employees are inevitably exposed to a huge pollution that can result in adverse pregnancy outcomes. Aim of the work: We aimed to evaluate the potential effect of exposure to textile industry induced pollution, among women textile workers, on pregnancy outcome. Patients and methods: A case-control study was carried out at Misr Spinning/Weaving Company, El Mahalla El Kubra, Egypt. The exposed and control group consisted of 142, and 143 eligible participants respectively. All underwent full history taking, clinical examination and ultrasound investigations during first, second and third trimesters. Pregnancy outcome was documented. Results: 64.1% of exposed group’ pregnancies were complicated versus 16.1% of control group. Of which pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH, 19.0%), preterm birth (23.2%), term low birth weight (TLBW, 19.7%), and congenital anomalies (2.1%), in contrast to 4.9%, 7.7%, 2.8%, and 0.7% respectively, in the control group. Conclusion: We concluded from our results that textile induced pollution exposure was significantly associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes (OR=1.652, CI: 1.287-1.954), and this risk was significantly proportional to duration of exposure (OR=2.110, CI: 1.334-3.338).