Sex-Dependent Impact of Low-Level Lead Exposure during Prenatal Period on Child Psychomotor Functions

Kinga Polanska, Wojciech Hanke, Natalia Pawlas, Ewelina Wesolowska, Agnieszka Jankowska, Marta Jagodic, Darja Mazej, Jolanta Dominowska, Mariusz Grzesiak, Fiorino Mirabella, Flavia Chiarotti and Gemma Calamandrei
Additional contact information
Kinga Polanska: Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, 91-348 Lodz, Poland
Wojciech Hanke: Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, 91-348 Lodz, Poland
Natalia Pawlas: Chair and Department of Pharmacology, Medical University of Silesia, School of Medicine with Division of Dentistry in Zabrze, 41 808 Zabrze, Poland
Ewelina Wesolowska: Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, 91-348 Lodz, Poland
Agnieszka Jankowska: Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, 91-348 Lodz, Poland
Marta Jagodic: Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Darja Mazej: Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Jolanta Dominowska: Department of Teaching Midwifery, Medical University of Lodz, 90-419 Lodz, Poland
Mariusz Grzesiak: Obstetrics, Perinatology and Gynecology Department, Polish Mother’s Memorial Hospital Research Institute, 93-338 Lodz, Poland
Fiorino Mirabella: Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, National Institute of Health, I-00161 Rome, Italy
Flavia Chiarotti: Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, National Institute of Health, I-00161 Rome, Italy
Gemma Calamandrei: Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, National Institute of Health, I-00161 Rome, Italy

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-11

Abstract: The impact of exposure to lead on child neurodevelopment has been well established. However, sex differences in vulnerability are still not fully explained. We aimed at evaluating the effect of a low-level lead exposure, as measured between 20 to 24 weeks of pregnancy and in cord blood, on developmental scores up to 24 months of age in 402 children from the Polish Mother and Child Cohort (REPRO_PL). Additionally, sex-dependent susceptibility to lead at this very early stage of psychomotor development was assessed. The blood lead levels were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). In order to estimate the children’s neurodevelopment, the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development was applied. The geometric mean (GM) for blood lead level during 20–24 weeks of pregnancy was 0.99 ± 0.15 µg/dL and, in the cord blood, it was 0.96 ± 0.16 µg/dL. There was no statistically significant impact of lead exposure during prenatal period on the girls’ psychomotor abilities. Among the boys, we observed lower scores for cognitive functions, along with increasing cord blood lead levels (β = −2.07; p = 0.04), whereas the results for the language and motor abilities were not statistically significant ( p > 0.05). Our findings show that fetal exposure to very low lead levels might affect early cognitive domain, with boys being more susceptible than girls. Education on health, higher public awareness, as well as intervention programs, along with relevant regulations, are still needed to reduce risks for the vulnerable population subgroups.

Keywords: sex differences; cord blood lead level; prenatal exposure; neurodevelopment; cognitive; language and motor functions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2263/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2263/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:10:p:2263-:d:175924

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().