Postnatal cadmium exposure, neurodevelopment, and blood pressure in children at 2, 5, and 7 years of age.
BACKGROUND
Adverse health effects of cadmium in adults are well documented, but little is known about the neuropsychological effects of cadmium in children, and no studies of cadmium and blood pressure in children have been conducted.


OBJECTIVE
We examined the potential effects of low-level cadmium exposure on intelligence quotient, neuropsychological functions, behavior, and blood pressure among children, using blood cadmium as a measure of exposure.


METHODS
We used the data from a multicenter randomized clinical trial of lead-exposed children and analyzed blood cadmium concentrations using the whole blood samples collected when children were 2 years of age. We compared neuropsychological and behavioral scores at 2, 5, and 7 years of age by cadmium level and analyzed the relationship between blood cadmium levels at 2 years of age and systolic and diastolic blood pressure at 2, 5, and 7 years of age.


RESULTS
The average cadmium concentration of these children was 0.21 microg/L, lower than for adults in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), but comparable to concentrations in children < 3 years of age in NHANES. Except for the California Verbal Learning Test for Children, there were no differences in test scores among children in different cadmium categories. For children with detectable pretreatment blood cadmium, after adjusting for a variety of covariates, general linear model analyses showed that at none of the three age points was the coefficient of cadmium on Mental Development Index or IQ statistically significant. Spline regression analysis suggested that behavioral problem scores at 5 and 7 years of age tended to increase with increasing blood cadmium, but the trend was not significant. We found no significant associations between blood cadmium levels and blood pressure.


CONCLUSIONS
We found no significant associations between background blood cadmium levels at 2 years of age and neurodevelopmental end points and blood pressure at 2, 5, and 7 years of age. The neuropsychological or hypertensive effects from longer background exposures to cadmium need further study.
Cao
Yang
Y
Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA. caoy2@niehs.nih.gov
Chen
Aimin
A
Radcliffe
Jerilynn
J
Dietrich
Kim N
KN
Jones
Robert L
RL
Caldwell
Kathleen
K
Rogan
Walter J
WJ
D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects*; D002104:Cadmium / Q000097:blood* / Q000633:toxicity*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000097:blood*
D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D002104:Cadmium