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Association between 10 urinary heavy metal exposure and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder for children

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Abstract

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with heavy metal exposure during adolescent development. However, the direct clinical evidence is limited. To investigate the possible association between environmental heavy metal exposure and ADHD, a case-control study was conducted with children aged 6–14 years in Guangzhou, China. Results showed that median concentrations of chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mo), tin (Sn), barium (Ba), and lead (Pb) in the urine of the case group were significantly higher than those of the control group. Children with ADHD had significantly higher levels of 8-OHdG and MDA compared with those from the control group. In addition, correlations between urinary Co, Ni, Cu, Mo, and Sn were significantly correlated with 8-OHdG and MDA concentrations in urine. After the case and control groups were combined together and the first quartile was used as the reference category, odds ratios (ORs) of ADHD for children increased significantly with the quartile increasing of urinary Co, Cu, and Sn. Our study provides a clinical evidence that Co, Cu, and Sn exposure, particularly Sn exposure, may be an environmental risk of the incurrence of ADHD for children. Furthermore, Co, Ni, Cu, Mo, and Sn exposures were significantly correlated with DNA and lipid damage.

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Funding

This research was supported by grants from the Opening Foundation of Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Catalysis and Health Risk Control (No. GKECHRC-04) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21777048, No. 21477041 and No. 41731279).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Catalysis and Health Risk Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Institute of Environmental Health and Pollution Control, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Yonghong Li

  2. Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Drug and Food Biological Resources Processing and Comprehensive Utilization, School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China

    Yonghong Li, XueJing Lv, Jian Liu, Jiaying He, Qihua Pang, Lingxue Meng, Hongxuan Kuang & Ruifang Fan

  3. Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou, 510120, China

    Caihui Cha

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  1. Yonghong Li
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Correspondence to Qihua Pang or Ruifang Fan.

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Li, Y., Cha, C., Lv, X. et al. Association between 10 urinary heavy metal exposure and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder for children. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 31233–31242 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09421-9

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