Prenatal lead exposure linked to developmental delays in bubs

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-10-24 02:00

International

CC:0 Image by วัฒนา ลอยมา from Pixabay

Mums who have been exposed to even low levels of lead increase the risk of their babies having delays to their brains' development, say Chinese and US researchers. The team looked at 2361 mum-bub pairs and compared the rates of cognitive developmental delay (CDD) - including difficulty speaking, paying attention, or focusing; later walking, crawling, or sitting compared to peers; and socially inappropriate or strange behaviour - against the levels of lead in the mum and baby's blood, as well as blood from the umbilical cord. The team found that of the group, 292 kids (12.4%) had CDD, and the increased risk was especially prevalent in kids with a higher genetic risk for the condition.

News release

From:

Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China

Funder: This study was supported by grants 2022YFC3702603 from the National Key Research and Development Plan (Prof Li), 91743103 from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Prof Li) and 2018QYTD12 from the Program for Huazhong University of Science and Technology Academic Frontier Youth Team (Prof Li).

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