title: Cadmium and mercury exposure over time in Swedish children.
abstract: Knowledge about changes in exposure to toxic metals over time remains very sparse, in particular for children, the most vulnerable group. Here, we assessed whether a reduction in environmental pollution with cadmium (Cd) and mercury (Hg) caused a change in exposure over time. In total, 1257 children (age 4-9) in two towns in Sweden were sampled once in 1986-2013. Blood concentrations of Cd (b-Cd; n=1120) and Hg (b-Hg; n=560) were determined.
  
  
  
  The median b-Cd was 0.10 (geometric mean 0.10; range 0.010-0.61) μg/L and b-Hg was 0.91 (geometric mean 0.83; range 0.021-8.2) μg/L. Children living close to a smelter had higher b-Cd and b-Hg than those in urban and rural areas. There was no sex difference in b-Cd or b-Hg, and b-Cd and b-Hg showed no significant accumulation by age. b-Cd decreased only slightly (0.7% per year, p<0.001) over the study period. In contrast, b-Hg did show a clear decrease over the study period (3% per year, p<0.001).
  
  
  
  The exposure to Cd was very low but still might increase the risk of disease later in life. Moreover, b-Cd only showed a minor decrease, indicating that Cd pollution should be further restricted. b-Hg was relatively low and decreasing, probably because of reduced use of dental amalgam and lower Hg intake from fish. The b-Cd and b-Hg levels decreased much less than the levels of lead in the blood as previously found in the same children.
authors.affiliation: Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Lund University, SE-22185 Lund, Sweden. Electronic address: Thomas.Lundh@med.lu.se.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lundh
authors.affiliation: Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Lund University, SE-22185 Lund, Sweden. Electronic address: Anna.Axmon@med.lu.se.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Axmon
authors.affiliation: Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Lund University, SE-22185 Lund, Sweden. Electronic address: Staffan.Skerfving@med.lu.se.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Skerfving
authors.affiliation: Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Lund University, SE-22185 Lund, Sweden; Unit of Metals and Health, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Nobels väg 13, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: Karin.Broberg@ki.se.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Broberg
mesh_terms: D002104:Cadmium / Q000097:blood*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008628:Mercury / Q000097:blood*; D013548:Sweden
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D002104:Cadmium; D008628:Mercury
keywords: Amalgam; Blood; Children; Fish; Metal; Methylmercury; Time trend