United States reproductive/developmental studies

Economic costs for adverse reproductive and developmental outcomes are noteworthy and expected to grow. Annual costs for infertility treatment in the United States exceed one billion dollars (U.S. Congress 1988). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the cost to society for developmental defects is massive (i.e., the lifetime costs for children bom annually with 17 of the most common birth defects and cerebral palsy is over 8 billion (CDC 1995)). However, these abnormalities affect only 22% of children with birth defects, and the cost estimate does not consider costs associated with many other developmental disorders. A recent study estimated the total lifetime costs for persons bom in 1996 with mental retardation, autism, or cerebral palsy to be 47 billion, 4.9 billion, and 12 billion, respectively (Honeycutt et al. 1999). 

Other toxic effects observed due to PAHs include decrease body weight, enlarged liver with cell edema and congestion of the liver parenchyma, reproductive toxicities, destruction of oocytes, and inflammation of kidney cells [15]. Developmental toxicities such as embryolethality, reduced fetal weight, and malformations have been reported in response to benz[fl]anthracene, benzo[a]pyrene, dibenz[fl,lt]anthracene, and naphthalene [13,16]. A series of studies have been conducted on the reproductive and developmental toxicity in humans. These were carried out in several countries such as Ukraine [17], United States [18], and Czech Republic [19]. Even though these studies did not have enough data to conclude a correlation, results from the numerous studies on laboratory animals indicate so. 

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