New research in Environmental International has found that prenatal exposure to mixtures of common metals could disrupt fetal development.
The research was conducted at Dartmouth College.
“The objective of the current study was to conduct an environmental mixture analysis of metal impacts on fetal growth, pooling data from three geographically and demographically diverse cohorts in the United States participating in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes program,” the study says.
The study involved a pooled sample of 1,002 participants from three different cohorts.
What researchers determined: “In the pooled Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression analysis, antimony, mercury, and tin were inversely and linearly associated with birth weight for gestational age z-scores, while a positive linear association was identified for nickel.”
“The inverse association between antimony and birth weight for gestational age z-scores was observed in both males and females and for all three cohorts but was strongest for MADRES cohort, a predominantly low-income Hispanic cohort in Los Angeles.”
The results of the study point to an adverse effect on fetal development through exposure of the metalloid antimony.
“Cohort- and/or sex-dependent associations were identified for many of the metals, which merit additional investigation,” researchers indicated.
