Polychlorinated biphenyls: influence on birthweight and gestation.

Fifty-one infants born to women employed at two capacitor manufacturing facilities with a history of high exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) had a mean birthweight of 153 grams less than that of 337 infants born to women who had worked in low-exposure areas (90 per cent confidence interval, -286 to -20 g); mean gestational age was 6.6 days shorter in the high-exposure infants (90 per cent CI, -10.3 to -2.9 days). After adjusting for gestational age, the difference in birthweight was markedly reduced, indicating that the observed reduction in birthweight was due mainly to shortening of gestational age in the high-exposure group.