New Link to Birth Defects: Dad's Job

Yet another thing for pregnant women to worry about: Their partner's choice of profession in the months before conception could increase the risk of birth defects in their newborns, finds a new study. Researchers studied more than 14,000 dads who worked in one of 63 job categories from at least three months before conception of their child through the first month of pregnancy. Among the potentially dangerous careers: mathematicians, artists, printers, drivers, landscapers, and oil and gas workers, reports LiveScience.

Researchers didn't study which specific chemicals might be involved in doing said jobs, so they couldn't prove causation, but they noted that some jobs were associated with certain defects. Artists, dry cleaners, and pharmacists, who are often exposed to solvents, were linked to eye, heart, and intestinal defects; groundskeepers and landscapers were more likely to produce babies with gut abnormalities. Dentists, firefighters, entertainers, and soldiers can rest easy, though. They're among the one third of jobs that were determined to have no link to birth defects. Click to see the full list. (More birth defect stories.)