Birth defects linked to dad's job: study

Research has found a father's job may negatively impact on his child's health. Photo / Thinkstock

Father's who do certain jobs may be more at risk of having children with birth defects, a study has found.

They include artists, photographers, hairdressers, mathematicians and office support workers, the researchers said.

But stonemasons, firemen, painters and car assembly workers, among others, have no added risk from their work.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina examined data from the US National Birth Defects Prevention Study.

They obtained the career histories of around 1000 men who had fathered a child with one or more birth defects born between 1997 and 2004.

This data was compared with information from 4000 men whose children did not have congenital abnormalities.

Researchers used a mathematical model for their analysis, classifying the jobs into 63 groups based on assumed exposure to chemicals or other potential hazards.

Just over two-thirds of the jobs analysed seemed to be linked to having a child with a birth defect. A third were not associated with any increased risk at all.

The study, published online in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, also found some jobs were associated with specific types of defect.

Photographers, for example, were linked to eye conditions.

- Daily Mail