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Does the metal content in soil around a pregnant woman’s home increase the risk of low birth weight for her infant?

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Abstract

Low birth weight (LBW) is associated with a number of maternal environmental exposures during pregnancy. This study explored the association between soil metal concentrations around the home where the mother lived during pregnancy and the outcome of LBW. We used a retrospective cohort of 9,920 mother–child pairs who were insured by Medicaid during pregnancy and lived in ten residential areas, where we conducted soil sampling. We used a grid that overlaid the residential areas and collected soil samples at the grid intersections. The soil was analyzed for the concentration of eight metals [arsenic (As), barium (Ba), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), and mercury (Hg)], and we then used Bayesian Kriging to estimate the concentration at the actual maternal addresses, since we had the GIS coordinates of the homes. We used generalized additive modeling, because the metal concentrations had nonlinear associations with LBW, to develop the best fitting multivariable model for estimating the risk of LBW. The final model showed significant associations for female infants, maternal smoking during pregnancy, non-white mothers, Cu, and As with LBW. The As variable was nonlinear in relation to LBW, and the association between higher concentrations of As with LBW was strong (p = 0.002). We identified a statistically significant association between soil concentrations of arsenic around the home of pregnant women and an increased risk of LBW for her infant.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was provided by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Grant No. R01 ES012895-01A1. This project was approved by the University of South Carolina Institutional Review Board, with exempt status, in accordance with 45 CFR 46.101 b (4).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Discovery 1, 915 Greene Street, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Suzanne McDermott, Weichao Bao & Bo Cai

  2. School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 715 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    C. Marjorie Aelion

  3. Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Epidemiology, College of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Cannon Street, Charleston, SC, 29425, USA

    Andrew B. Lawson

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  1. Suzanne McDermott
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  2. Weichao Bao
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  3. C. Marjorie Aelion
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  4. Bo Cai
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  5. Andrew B. Lawson
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Correspondence to Suzanne McDermott.

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McDermott, S., Bao, W., Aelion, C.M. et al. Does the metal content in soil around a pregnant woman’s home increase the risk of low birth weight for her infant?. Environ Geochem Health 36, 1191–1197 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-014-9617-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-014-9617-4

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