Nitrate in drinking water and risk of birth defects: Findings from a study of over one million births in Denmark

BACKGROUND AND AIM: A few epidemiologic studies have reported an association between nitrate in drinking water and the risk of birth defects (BD). Our objective was to examine this association in a large, population-based study with individual-level exposure estimates. METHODS: We studied a cohort of all Danish singletons liveborn to Danish-born parents from 1991–2013 (N=1,018,914). In total, 33,182 BD diagnosed until the age of two were...