Levels of Metals in Hair in Childhood: Preliminary Associations with Neuropsychological Behaviors

Abstract

For more than 100 years, an electrochemical plant has been operating in Flix (Catalonia, Spain) by the Ebro River. Its activities have originated a severe accumulation of environmental contaminants (metals, organochlorinated pesticides and radionuclides) in sediments of the Flix reservoir, while mercury (Hg) has been also frequently released to the air. Environmental exposure to industrial pollutants has been associated with decreased intelligence and behavioral problems. In the present study, we assessed, in 53 children living in the village of Flix and the surroundings, the relationships between the concentrations of a number of trace elements (As, Be, Cd, Cs, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sn, Tl, U and V) in hair and the levels of testosterone in blood, with respect to potential neuropsychological alterations. Lead (Pb) and Hg showed the highest mean concentrations in hair samples. However, the current Hg levels were lower than those previously found in

Biomonitoring of Trace Elements in Hair of Schoolchildren Living Near a Hazardous Waste Incinerator—A 20 Years Follow-Up

“…Furthermore, despite the mean Cr concentration is similar to most levels found in recent literature, Cr concentrations in the urban area of Madrid were approximately 5-fold higher than those of the present study [46]. The mean level of Hg was also higher than the concentrations found in other locations, such as toxic waste disposal sites of Russia [35] and different urban areas [14,47]. In contrast, Hg concentrations in children from Tarragona County were lower than those found in other Spanish studies focused on assessing urban and industrial/mining areas [26,46].…”

“…In contrast, higher Ni levels were found when our data are compared with those of other studies, excepting those reported by Xie et al [30] in Shaoguan Guangdong (China) and Evrenoglou et al [14] in Athens (Greece). In turn, Pb levels were higher than those found in hair of children living in some mining, volcanic, sub-urban and urban areas [14,26,34,36,47] but lower than values from children living near certain mining zones, as well as near to toxic waste disposal sites and cement plants [11,30,34,35,37]. The individual characteristics of the geographic areas where the children live would probably be the responsible of the observed variability in Ni and Pb levels among studies.…”

“…The concentrations of trace elements in hair of schoolchildren were compared with those of recent studies found in the scientific literature ( Table 5). Most of these investigations are focused on areas with important industrial or mining activities or even in urban zones [11,14,26,30,[34][35][36][37]46,47]. The different results might be attributed to the differences among the respective geographical areas.…”

Lead, Mercury, and Cadmium Concentrations in Blood Products Transfused to Neonates: Elimination Not Just Mitigation

“…The adult donors may be exposed to a variety of substances, including HMs from either environmental or occupational sources [ 23 ]. Neonates are one of the most vulnerable groups to such exposures because they are the most frequent recipients of transfused blood [ 24 , 25 , 26 ]. Safe levels for intravenous administration of these metals are unknown [ 3 ].…”