Blood Lead Levels During Pregnancy

Alexander FW, Delves HT. 1981. Blood lead levels during pregnancy. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 48 35-39. 

Rothenberg SJ, Manalo M, Jiang J, et al. 1999b. Maternal blood lead level during pregnancy in South Central Los Angeles. Archives of Environmental Health 54(3) 1-31. 

II. Maternal Blood Lead Levels During Pregnancy... 

Ahokas RA, Dilts PV (1979) Cadmium uptake by the rat embryo as a function of gestational age. Am J Obstet Gynecol 135 219-222 Alexander FW, Delves HT (1981) Blood lead levels during pregnancy. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 48 35-39... 

Agerty, H.A. (1952). Lead poisoning in children. Med. Clin. North Am., 36, 1587-1597 Alexander, F.W. and Delves, H.T. (1981). Blood lead levels during pregnancy. Ini. Arch. Occup. Environ. Health, 48, 35-39... 

The blood lead measures were assessed, and due to inconsistencies in measurement, only maternal blood lead during pregnancy (maternal PbB) and water lead levels during pregnancy were used as dependent variables. The mean values of these variables divided into the original three groupings are shown in Table 1, with the means of the available infant blood lead values at 1 year (infant PbBl) and at 2 years (infant PbB2). Pica in year 1 and year 2 was also measured. 

Rothenberg SJ Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA Correlation between blood lead levels and blood pressure during pregnancy ATDSR... 

Lagerkvist BJ, Ekesrydh S, Englyst V, et al. 1996. Increased blood lead and decreased calcium levels during pregnancy a prospective study of Swedish women living near a smelter. Am J Public Health 86 1247-1252. 

Rabinowitz M, Bellinger D, Leviton A, et al. 1987. Pregnancy hypertension, blood pressure during labor, and blood lead levels. Hypertension 10 447-451. 

Transfer of uranium across the placenta was investigated in an animal study, but no information is available for humans. In the animal study, only 0.01-0.03% of an intravenous dose of uranium to rat dams crossed the placenta (Sikov and Mahlum 1968) thus if an inhalation, oral, or dermal exposure was sufficient to raise the blood uranium level, a very limited amount of uranium might cross the placenta. No studies were located regarding uranium in breast milk. Based on the chemical properties of uranium, it seems unlikely that there would be preferential distribution from the blood to this high-fat compartment. It is not known if uranium has any effect on the active transport of calcium into breast milk. Most of the adult body burden of uranium is stored in bone (ICRP 1979, 1995, 1996). It is not known if maternal bone stores of uranium (like those of calcium and lead) are mobilized during pregnancy and lactation. 

In any case, it s estimated that the human fetus is ten to a hundred times more sensitive to ambient lead than children or adults, such that the so-called national averages are almost certainly dangerous for the fetus. In 2006, researchers reported a study of 146 pregnant women in Mexico City.13 It s one of the few studies to measure maternal lead values during each trimester of pregnancy. The researchers examined the impact of prenatal lead exposure on fetal neurodevelopment by measuring whole blood and plasma levels of lead in the pregnant mothers at each trimester and then in umbilical cord blood at delivery. When the infants were at 12 and 24 months of age, the researchers measured their BLL and also evaluated their neural development with a standard method (the Spanish version of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development). From the evidence,... 

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