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Trimester-specific prenatal heavy metal exposures and sex-specific postpartum size and growth

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 33, pages 895–902 (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

There has been limited research considering the effects of prenatal exposure to multiple heavy metals on early childhood size and growth.

Objective

We evaluated prenatal exposures to 15 heavy metals in association with measures of weight, length, and head circumference (HC) measured at birth, and 1, 3 and 6 months of age in a study of 358 mother-child pairs.

Methods

Urinary concentrations were measured in the first and third trimesters of pregnancy and examined, using sex-stratified general linear models, in association with average standardized size and changes in size (growth) over the first 6 months of life. Confounding effects among metals were explored.

Results

Increased first trimester Hg and V were associated with decreased average HC among males and weight among females, respectively. Increased first trimester V was associated with a decline in weight among females over time. Increased third trimester Cs, Rb and Tl were associated with increased average weight and HC among males. Increased third trimester Se was associated with increased HC among females over time. Evidence for confounding was observed between Cs, Rb and Tl in association with weight and HC.

Significance

We observed multiple biologically plausible associations between prenatal heavy metal exposures and postnatal size and growth.

Impact

We have taken a comprehensive and novel approach to evaluating the impacts of prenatal heavy metal exposures on size and growth during early childhood. Our detailed analyses consider exposures to 15 different heavy metals at two time points during pregnancy, as well as multiple metrics of size and growth collected at birth and 1, 3 and 6 months of age.

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Data availability

Access to data and code will require approval by the Guangdong Province Hospital for Occupational Disease Prevention and Treatment and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Contact the corresponding author for further details.

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Funding

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health (R01ES025796); National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81972990, LLiu); Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Plan (2017B030314152, JC).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Lena Yao, Lili Liu

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program in Epidemiology, Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Lena Yao & Parveen Bhatti

  2. Department of Toxicology, Guangdong Province Hospital for Occupational Disease Prevention and Treatment, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Lili Liu, Jinmei Yang & Zhiqiang Zhao

  3. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Occupational Disease Prevention and Treatment, Guangdong Province Hospital for Occupational Disease Prevention, Guangzhou, China

    Lili Liu, Ming Dong, Jinmei Yang, Zhiqiang Zhao & Jiabin Chen

  4. Guangdong Maternal and Child Hospital, Guangzhou, China

    Lijuan Lv

  5. Nanhai Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital of Foshan, Foshan, China

    Zhaoxia Wu

  6. National Institute for Occupational Health and Poison Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China

    Jin Wang & Xin Sun

  7. Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Steven Self

  8. Cancer Control Research, BC Cancer Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Parveen Bhatti

  9. School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Parveen Bhatti

Authors
  1. Lena Yao
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  3. Ming Dong
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  10. Xin Sun
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Contributions

LY, LLiu, JC, XS, SS and PB were responsible for the overall design of the study. LLiu, MD, JY and ZZ were responsible for generating heavy metal measurements. LLv, ZW, JW and XS oversaw participant recruitment and data and biospecimen collection. LLiu conducted all data analyses with oversight by LY and SS. LY, LLiu, SS and PB contributed to writing the report. All authors provided feedback on the report.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Parveen Bhatti.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the ethical committee of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Yao, L., Liu, L., Dong, M. et al. Trimester-specific prenatal heavy metal exposures and sex-specific postpartum size and growth. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 33, 895–902 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-022-00443-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-022-00443-8

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