Blood mercury, lead, cadmium, manganese and selenium levels in pregnant women and their determinants: the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS)

Abstract

The Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) is a birth-cohort study of 100,000 mother–child dyads that aims to investigate the effect of the environment on child health and development. Mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), manganese (Mn) and selenium (Se) are considered to be important co-exposures when examining the effect of other chemical substances on child development. The levels of these elements in the blood of 20,000 randomly selected mid/late-term pregnant women from the whole JECS cohort were analysed using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. The median concentrations (interquartile ranges) for Pb, Hg, Cd, Mn and Se were 0.63 (0.51–0.78) µg dl−1, 3.83 (2.70–5.43) µg l−1, 0.70 (0.52–0.95) µg l−1, 16.1 (13.2–19.6) µg l−1 and 178 (165–192) µg l−1, respectively. Hg and Se correlated positively with each other (Spearman’s ρ = 0.287), as did Pb and Cd (ρ = 0.239) and Cd and Mn (ρ = 0.267). The blood Pb levels decreased by 5–10-fold over the past 25 years. The main predictors of the blood levels of each element were fish consumption for Hg, maternal age and non-alcoholic beverage consumption for Pb, maternal age and smoking for Cd, gestational age at sampling for Mn and serum protein levels for Se. These results revealed the historical trends and current predictors of the blood levels of these elements in pregnant Japanese women.

Health Risk Assessment and Source Apportionment of Mercury, Lead, Cadmium, Selenium, and Manganese in Japanese Women: An Adjunct Study to the Japan Environment and Children’s Study

“…This survey was conducted as an adjunct study of the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS). The JECS design is described elsewhere [21,24,25]. Briefly, JECS recruited 103,099 pregnant women between January 2011 and March 2014 from 15 study regions covering a wide geographical area in Japan, with a planned follow-up of 13 years.…”

“…Among the existing studies in Japan, it has been known that fish and rice are the leading sources of Hg and Cd, respectively [17,18]; food is the primary source of Mn and Se [19,20]. In comparison, the major source of Pb has not been identified [21].…”

Emerging Anticancer Potentials of Selenium on Osteosarcoma

“…The main selenium species present in food are selenomethionine (SeMet), selenocysteine (SeC), selenium-methylselenocysteine (Se-MSC), SeO 3 2 and SeO 4 2− [9]. The organic forms of selenium are present in greater amount in food, and their bioavailability is higher because they are absorbed easily compared with inorganic selenium [7,8,10]. The US-recommended dietary allowance and UK-recommended reference nutrient intake of selenium for an adult are 55 and 60 µg/day, respectively [11,12].…”

“…The US-recommended dietary allowance and UK-recommended reference nutrient intake of selenium for an adult are 55 and 60 µg/day, respectively [11,12]. The average dietary intake of selenium varies across countries [10,13,14,15,16]. People from several countries, such as the UK, China, New Zealand and Finland, are traditionally deficient in selenium dietary intake [7,8,10,15,16].…”

Patterns and Determinants of Essential and Toxic Elements in Chinese Women at Mid-Pregnancy, Late Pregnancy, and Lactation

“…However, the level of Zn we observed was slightly higher than that of American women [ 19 ], and markedly higher than that of Korean women [ 24 ]. The concentrations of Pb and Cd were higher but the Hg concentration was lower in pregnant women in our study as compared to those in Japan [ 46 ].…”