Environment and health
Dr. Igor Burstyn's research helps us identify environmental contaminants that are harmful to our health.
Story by Laura Ly/Photo by Veer
Perflourinated acids (PFA) are a type of chemical compound designed to repel water and oil. Commonly used in consumer products such as Scotchgard, Teflon, and Gore-Tex, traces of PFA have been found in humans, animals, and all environments; they even show up in polar bears near the North Pole. Since PFA compounds are so widespread, how do these chemical compounds affect human health, in particular fetal development? Dr. Igor Burstyn aims to find out.
Although it is not known exactly how humans are exposed to PFAs, the air we breathe and the food we eat are two possible avenues. Dr. Burstyn explains, "PFAs don't degrade, and they stick around in the environment a long time after they are released." As a result, PFAs likely linger in the air and transfer to the food we eat.
Dr. Burstyn and his colleagues designed a study to test whether maternal exposure to PFAs could be related to poor fetal development. "Our study examined how these compounds might affect the physiology of a pregnant woman and how that, in turn, may influence the well-being of a newborn," he explains.
The study tested for levels of three specific PFA compounds in maternal blood samples from the triple screen tests of pregnant women in Edmonton. Triple screen, a prenatal test typically done between the first and second trimesters, involves drawing a blood sample from the mother and testing for specific markers to identify whether the fetus is at risk for certain birth defects and genetic abnormalities.
In addition to PFA levels in maternal blood, the study also looked at fetal and birth indicators, such as birthweight and length of gestation. "A common measure of assessing how well a pregnancy progressed is whether the child is the appropriate weight for their gestational age," says Dr. Burstyn. "In addition, we looked at other common measures of prenatal morbidity, such as APGAR scores—a method that assesses whether a child appears to be blue, lethargic, or deprived of oxygen at birth."
The study linked the results of the mother's blood test to the birth outcomes of the child using data from the Alberta Perinatal Health Program, which collects information from every birth in the province. "We compared newborns with healthy birthweights for their gestational age to newborns with low birthweights to see if the environmental PFA exposures of the mothers could explain the differences," Dr. Burstyn says. Similar to previous research on PFAs and fetal development, the study determined that one PFA compound may be associated with a small decrease in birthweight, but the other two were found to have no association with birth outcomes.
Now that the PFA study is complete, Dr. Burstyn is focusing his attention on other environmental contaminants. He is currently designing a study to look at the effects of maternal exposure to bisphenol A (BPA). BPA is a chemical commonly used in consumer products made of hard plastic such as toys, bottles, and food containers. BPA has received a lot of attention recently; Health Canada has identified it as a potential health risk and banned the sale of baby bottles containing the chemical.
Trained as an occupational epidemiologist, Dr. Burstyn also looks at the relationship between chronic disease and the workplace. He wants to determine how workplaces may affect the health of Albertans and recently completed a study examining the effect of Western Canada's oil and gas industry on air pollution.
All of Dr. Burstyn's research projects have common objectives: identify environmental threats to health and develop research methods to find solutions to those threats. His research goal is to provide the best information to the public about possible health risks in order for people to make informed decisions. "I want to give the public credible information on what are, and what are not, environmental threats to their health. And I want this information to be useful so that the public can rationally identify the risks and assess them."