Specific Association of Teratogen and Toxicant Metals in Hair of Newborns with Congenital Birth Defects or Developmentally Premature Birth in a Cohort of Couples with Documented Parental Exposure to Military Attacks: Observational Study at Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza, Palestine

Paola Manduca, Awny Naim and Simona Signoriello
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Paola Manduca: Dept. Scienze della Terra, Ambientali e della Vita, University of Genoa, Genova 16132, Italy
Awny Naim: Palestinina Energy and Natural Resources Authority, Gaza City, Palestine
Simona Signoriello: Department of Medical Health and Preventive Medicine, Second University of Naples, Napoli 80100, Italy

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: This study was undertaken in Gaza, Palestine, in a cohort of babies born in 2011. Hair samples of newborns were analyzed for metal load by DRC-ICP-MS. We report specific level of contamination by teratogen/toxicants metals of newborn babies, environmentally unexposed, according to their phenotypes at birth: normal full term babies, birth defects or developmentally premature. The occurrence of birth defects was previously shown to be correlated in this cohort to documented exposure of parents to weapons containing metal contaminants, during attacks in 2009. We detect, in significantly higher amounts than in normal babies, different specific teratogen or toxicant elements, known weapons’ components, characteristic for each of birth defect or premature babies. This is the first attempt to our knowledge to directly link a phenotype at birth with the in utero presence of specific teratogen and/or toxicant metals in a cohort with known episodes of acute exposure of parents to environmental contamination by these same metals, in this case delivered by weaponry The babies were conceived 20–25 months after the major known parental exposure; the specific link of newborn phenotypes to war-remnant metal contaminants, suggests that mothers’ contamination persists in time, and that the exposure may have a long term effect.

Keywords: major structural birth defects; prematurity at birth; in utero metal contamination; newborn hair analysis by DRC-ICP-MS; exposure of mothers to weaponry; correlation of phenotypes with maternal exposure and metal hair load (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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