Notice of RetractionLevels of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in Umbilical Cord Serum from Shanghai and Their Relation to Newborns Birth Outcomes

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

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Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are widespread in China. Recent studies have demonstrated widespread exposure to PBDEs among susceptible populations including pregnant women in some cities in China. But little is known about levels of PBDEs exposure in the population of Shanghai and its potential adverse health effects. We investigated both PBDEs exposure levels in umbilical cord serum and the effects of PBDEs exposure on fetal growth in Shanghai, China, enrolling 50 healthy pregnant women between September 2006 and April 2007. PBDEs exposure was assessed by a questionnaire administered to the mothers in the hospital after delivery as well as by analyzed seven PBDE congeners (BDE-28, -47, -99, -100, -153, -154 and -183) in umbilical cord serum. Medical records on birth weight, length, head and chest circumference were collected for the enrolled infants. The mean, median and range of Σ₇PBDEs in umbilical cord serum were 56.65 ng/g lipid, 14.06 ng/g lipid, and (1.03-379.73) ng/g lipid respectively. The top three PBDE congeners were BDE-99, BDE-100 and BDE-153, and the detection rates were 98%, 72% and 76% respectively. The levels of PBDEs in umbilical cord serum of Shanghai were similar to the reports in South Korea and Spain, but lower than that in U.S.A. In the assessment of the fetal growth, we found negative correlations between newborns´ Quetelet´s index and BDE-99 (r = -0.347, P<;0.05) and BDE-154 (r = -0.292, P <;0.05). But the birth length, weight, head and chest circumfe- ence had no correlation with the PBDE congeners. Our findings suggested that potential adverse health effects of utero PBDEs exposure should continue to be carefully studied in the future.