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Rates of preterm birth have been rising in the U.S. To assess the relation between preterm birth and phthalate exposure during pregnancy, researchers conducted a nested case–control study of women with planned deliveries in a Boston hospital between 2006 and 2008 who had urine samples tested for phthalate metabolites on three occasions during their pregnancies. The 130 women with preterm births (<37 weeks' gestation) during this period were compared with 352 randomly selected control women with full-term births. Multiple gestations were excluded.
Mean levels of four phthalate metabolites were significantly higher among women with preterm births than among controls. Even stronger associations were seen for the 57 cases of spontaneous preterm …