Reproductive Articles

Title

Lead Poisoning Effects on Pregnant Women and Children

Author

Farhan Abdul Rauf

Publication

Geneva Foundation for Medical Educution and Research, January 11, 2014

Link

http://www.gfmer.ch/GFMER_members/pdf/Lead-poisoning-effects-pregnant-women-children-Rauf-2014.pdf

Abstract

  • 600 000 new cases of children with intellectual disabilities every year.
  • 99% of children affected by high exposure to lead live in low- and middle-income countries, says WHO.
  • 143 000 deaths per year result from lead poisoning.
  • At high levels of exposure, lead damages the brain and central nervous system to cause coma, convulsions and even death. Children who survive such poisoning are often left with intellectual impairment and behavioral disorders.
  • At lower levels of exposure, lead is now known to produce a spectrum of injury across multiple body systems. In particular, lead affects brain development in children, resulting in reduced IQ, behavioral changes such as shortening of attention span and increased antisocial behavior, and reduced educational attainment. These effects are believed to be irreversible. Adults are at increased risk of kidney disease and raised blood pressure.

Title

Unexplained Infertility: Could Lead Poisoning be the Cause?

Author

Joanna Karpasea-Jones

Link

https://suite.io/joanna-karpasea-jones/5cg025k

Abstract

Lead poisoning often has no symptoms, yet reduces fertility in women and could be responsible for unexplained infertility and recurrent miscarriage.


Title

Lead May Impair Male Fertility

Author

Human Reproduction, February 2003

Publication

Doctor N-DTV

Link

http://doctor.ndtv.com/storypage/ndtv/id/001225/type/news/Male_contraceptive_pills_effective.html


Title

Lead Poisoning Threatens Pregnant Women

Publication

Fertility Chicago, July 8, 2010

Link

http://www.fertilitychicago.org/4162/lead-poisoning-threatens-pregnant-women/


Title

Pregnant or planning a pregnancy? / Are you at risk from lead?

Publication

Global Lead Advice & Support System / Retrieved December 24, 2014

Link

http://www.lead.org.au/lanv6n2/update005.html


Title

Passing of Lead from Mother to Child is Shown

Author

Susan Gilbert

Publication

The New York Times, June 18, 1996

Link

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/18/science/passing-of-lead-from-mother-to-child-is-shown.html

Abstract

Scientists have found the first direct evidence that a girl growing up in a lead-polluted environment can pass that lead on to her children, putting their intellectual and motor development at risk. Researchers at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, followed 13 women who had recently immigrated to Australia from the former Yugoslavia and then became pregnant. The lead they were exposed to in the Balkans, and which was stored in their bones, has a different molecular weight from the lead in Australia. By the end of pregnancy, as much as 60 percent of the total amount of lead in blood came from the women’s bones.