TITLE:
An association between maternal lead and cadmium levels and birth weight of the babies in North Indian population
AUTHORS:
Divya Dwivedi, Madhu Jain, Shuchi Jain
KEYWORDS:
Lead; Cadmium; Environmental Exposure; Birth Weight; Venous Blood; Cord Blood
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Vol.3 No.3,
May
8,
2013
ABSTRACT: Lead
is listed as the 2nd and Cadmium as the 7th hazardous substance by the Agency
for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Exposure to Lead and Cadmium
above the permissible levels among pregnants may cause adverse effects on newborns
in the form of Low Birth Weight and Preterm Labor, etc. The objectives of this
study were to find out the level of Lead and Cadmium in maternal venous blood and
cord blood and to find out the association of the levels of these metals with
birth weight of babies. For this, the venous blood and cord blood were collected
and quantitative estimation of Lead and Cadmium was carried out by Double Beam
Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer in 1000
women with average Body Mass Index. Results showed higher mean maternal
blood Lead level (11.08 μg/dl with range of 2.6 - 21.3) than the normal
recommended by Centre of Disease Control and Prevention (10 μg/dl). On the
contrary, the mean Cadmium level was 0.095 μg/dl, which was below the normal
value as assigned by WHO (0.1 μg/dl). In high Lead exposure group (>10 μg/dl),
43.7% of babies and in high Cadmium exposure group (>0.1 μg/dl), 46.2% of
babies were found to have low birth weight. However, this was not statistically
significant. Further research in this area in a larger sample size may provide
information relevant enough to be transferred to decision makers to implement
measures to effectively reduce heavy metals from the environment, thereby protecting
future generations from their deleterious effects.