Notice of RetractionOrganophosphate Pesticide Exposure Levels of Pregnancy Women in Shanghai, China

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.

The presenting author of this paper has the option to appeal this decision by contacting TPII@ieee.org.

Although pesticide use is widespread in China, little is known about levels of exposure to organophosphate pesticides in the population. We investigated levels of organophosphate exposure on gestational duration in Shanghai, China, enrolling healthy pregnant women between September 2006 and January 2007. Questionnaires were administered and medical record information was collected for 187 mothers. We also measured nonspecific metabolites of organophosphate pesticides (dimethyl and diethyl phosphates) in maternal urine collected right before delivery. Geometric means of metabolites were 25.75 ug/L for dimethylphosphate (DMP); 11.99 ug/L for dimethylthiophosphate (DMTP); 9.03 ug/L for diethylphosphate (DEP); and 9.45 ug/L for diethyldithiophosphate (DETP). Maternal urine pesticide levels were much higher than those reported for women in the US and Netherlands, suggesting that potential adverse health effects of in utero organophosphate exposure should continue to be carefully studied in the future. This is the first research about pregnant women organophosphate pesticides exposure levels in Shanghai. It will provide useful information for further related research.