Hair metal level in newborn and mother pairs from Iran is reported. Toxic metals including cadmium (157 vs. 87.5 μg/kg), mercury (246 vs. 198 μg/kg), copper (14,313 vs. 11,776 μg/kg) and aluminum (52,022 vs. 408,207 μg/kg) were higher in newborn hair when compared to their mothers; suggesting that metals maybe discarded in the fetus as a detoxification method. Comparison with available data from Germany and Poland, and Iraq suggests overall similarities and significant differences in the case of the Iraqi subjects. Public protection from mixture toxicity of metals will be facilitated by studies such as ours.
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