Abstract
This study aims to assess interrelationships between serum lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), and mercury (Hg) concentrations in pregnant women in their third trimester and umbilical cord blood, while inter-metal correlations were also determined. This study is part of the PIPA project (Childhood and Environmental Pollutant Project), whose pilot study was carried out from October 2017 to August 2018 and will be presented here. Blood samples were obtained from 117 mother-umbilical cord pairs and analyzed concerning metal concentrations. A positive correlation was found between metal concentrations in mother and cord blood (R > 0.7, p < 0.001). The results indicate that mother metal concentrations are able to determine child metal concentrations (p < 0.001). The correlations between maternal blood metal concentrations were positive for all assessed metals except for As and Hg. The strongest correlations in this matrix were observed between Cd and Pb (R = 0.471 p = 0.000), Cd and Hg (R = 0.425 p = 0.000), and Pb and Hg (R = 0.427 p = 0.000). Umbilical cord correlations were lower compared to mother blood correlations. In general, the four analyzed metals displayed significant correlations to serum concentrations in both maternal and cord blood.
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The Rio Birth Cohort Study of Environmental Exposure and Childhood Development (PIPA Project) was funded by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The findings and conclusions of this study are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not represent the official views of the Brazilian government.
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The PIPA project is coordinated by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in partnership with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, approved by the Maternity Research School (no. 2,092,440) and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (no. 2,121,397) Ethics Committees.
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de Figueiredo, N.D., Araújo, M.S., Luiz, R.R. et al. Metal mixtures in pregnant women and umbilical cord blood at urban populations—Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 40210–40218 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10021-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10021-w