Breast milk lead concentrations of mothers living near tin smelters.
We compared Pb concentration in human milk from 37 mothers living in a neighborhood of tin-ore smelters to that from 45 mothers living in a fishing community. The median breast-milk-Pb (BM-Pb) concentration was significantly (p = 0.0000001) higher (11.3 μg L(-1); ≤0.96-29.4 μg L(-1)) in mothers living in the vicinity of smelters than that of rural mothers (1.9 μg L(-1); ≤0.96-20.0 μg L(-1)). These mothers also showed a statistically significant correlation between length of residence and BM-Pb concentration (Spearman r = 0.6864; p < 0.0001). The estimated median exposure (for infants <6 months) was 3.0 μg kg(-1) b.w. for rural infants compared to 7.5 μg kg(-1) b.w. for infants in the vicinity of metal smelters. Overall, most BM-Pb concentrations (79 %) in the metal smelter area were above the critical limit of 5.0 μg L(-1) set by the WHO.
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Campus Macaé, Macaé, RJ, Brazil.
Rejane C
RC
Marques
Maria de Fátima R
Mde F
Moreira
José Vicente E
JV
Bernardi
José G
JG
Dórea
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000378:metabolism*; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007854:Lead / Q000378:metabolism*; D018811:Maternal Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008669:Metallurgy; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000378:metabolism*; D009035:Mothers; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D007854:Lead