title: Maternal exposure to alkali, alkali earth, transition and other metals: Concentrations and predictors of exposure.
abstract: Most studies of metals exposure focus on the heavy metals. There are many other metals (the transition, alkali and alkaline earth metals in particular) in common use in electronics, defense industries, emitted via combustion and which are naturally present in the environment, that have received limited attention in terms of human exposure. We analysed samples of whole blood (172), urine (173) and drinking water (172) for antimony, beryllium, bismuth, cesium, gallium, rubidium, silver, strontium, thallium, thorium and vanadium using ICPMS. In general most metals concentrations were low and below the analytical limit of detection with some high concentrations observed. Few factors examined in regression models were shown to influence biological metals concentrations and explained little of the variation. Further study is required to establish the source of metals exposures at the high end of the ranges of concentrations measured and the potential for any adverse health impacts in children.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecosystem Management, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, Australia. Electronic address: a.hinwood@ecu.edu.au.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Hinwood
authors.affiliation: School of Population Health, University of Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stasinska
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecosystem Management, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, Australia; School of Medical Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Callan
authors.affiliation: School of Population Health, University of Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Heyworth
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecosystem Management, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, Australia; Department of Chemistry Malaysia, Jalan Sultan, Petaling Jaya, 46661 Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramalingam
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecosystem Management, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boyce
authors.affiliation: ChemCentreWA, PO Box 1250, Bentley, WA 6983, Australia.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McCafferty
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: J Ø
authors.initials: JØ
authors.lastname: Odland
mesh_terms: D060766:Drinking Water / Q000032:analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000097:blood* / Q000652:urine*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018811:Maternal Exposure; D008670:Metals / Q000097:blood* / Q000652:urine*; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine; D014904:Western Australia
chemical_list: D060766:Drinking Water; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D008670:Metals
keywords: Alkali earth metals; Alkali metals; Blood; Drinking water; Human exposure; Urine