Environmental Exposures and Sudden Unexpected Infant Death : a Descriptive Study From the French Prospective Multisite Registry (OMIN)

This project is a descriptive study designed to estimate the exposure of infants who died of MIN to ambient air pollutants, and to measure pesticide concentrations in biological matrices (hair, serum, LCS) within a sample from the OMIN registry. These two types of pollutants represent two important determinants of environmental health. Although their emission sources and chemical composition differ, these pollutants carry the risk of multiple toxicities that can contribute to the occurrence of Unexpected Infant Death Syndrome (SUID), and are widely present in France, in the air as well as in food, waterways, soils, etc. These two approaches have enabled us to develop two complementary methodologies: geostatistics associated with environmental epidemiology for air pollutants, and analytical environmental chemistry for pesticides.

In addition to matching these exposure measurements with data from the OMIN registry, we will be able to address the impact and determinants of these exposures - i.e., to highlight the individual and collective characteristics that favor high exposure, and to address the toxicological mechanisms linked to these exposures and that may contribute to the occurrence of SUID in general.