But previous studies on the effects of metals on fetal development often looked at each metal at a time and in an individual population.
“The limitation of that is that we are often exposed to a complex mixture of many metals that can simultaneously interact with each other, and the range of exposure can be narrow to just one population for a single metal. determined,” explains Dr Caitlin Howe, lead author, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, whose research has focused on toxic metal exposures and their effects on health. healthy mothers and children.
“So our goal was to look at many diverse populations with different exposure patterns, so that we could better understand the adequate dose-response relationships for some of these chemicals.” in a larger mixed context,” she said.
To do this, the researchers conducted a mixed environmental analysis of the effects of metals on fetal development, pooling data from three geographically and demographically diverse groups. in the United States. about the Child Health Outcomes Program (ECHO) — a national research program supported by the NIH that studies the impact of a wide range of early environmental influences on children’s health and development . Using a new statistical method that can account for complex mixtures of pollutants, the investigators examined associations between seven commonly found metals (antimony, cadmium, cobalt, mercury, molybdenum). , nickel and tin) were measured in 1,002 maternal urine samples collected during pregnancy. , and birth weight for gestational age. They also investigated potential differences between groups and the sex of infants.
“Our most consistent finding was that antimony, a well-studied metal, was associated with reduced birth weight for gestational age in all three groups and in both men and women,” Howe said. suggests that it may adversely affect fetal development.” “So it’s one factor that we want to identify what the main sources of exposure are so we can help reduce that exposure to prevent harmful effects on fetal development in these different populations.”
For example, the higher antimony concentrations observed in the Los Angeles and Puerto Rican groups could be attributed to their urban location, as traffic-related air pollution from brake wear is known to be a source of exposure. important antimony, as well as smelting and coal-fired plants and waste incinerators. In contrast, bottled water could be a source of related antimony exposure for all three groups.
Although researchers have identified some group- and/or gender-dependent associations for many of the other metals studied, they lack the consistency that has been seen for the results, Howe said. antimony and therefore requires further study.
“Our hope is to be able to do a larger study in the future that includes more cohorts, so we can look more deeply at what is driving those inconsistencies and,” Howe said. better understand potential differences due to geography or other population characteristics,” says Howe.
The study was funded by the NIH, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Source: Eurekalert
