Evidence map›Paper›PMID 15866768›Full record

ArticleEnvironmental health perspectives2005

Public health and economic consequences of methyl mercury toxicity to the developing brain.

Leonardo Trasande, Philip J Landrigan, Clyde Schechter

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Environmental health perspectives, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 89 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
89citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

89 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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29 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Leonardo TrasandeCenter for Children's Health and the Environment, Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029, USA. leo.trasande@mssm.edu
Philip J Landrigan
Clyde Schechter

Funding

URBAN HEAVY METAL EXPOSURE--ELEMENTAL AND ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF SAMPLESP42ES007384 · NIEHS · MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE OF NYU · PI LANDRIGAN, PHILIP J · 1995 to 2006
$8.0M
NIEHS NIH HHS PT42 ES 07384
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Methyl mercury is a developmental neurotoxicant. Exposure results principally from consumption by pregnant women of seafood contaminated by mercury from anthropogenic (70%) and natural (30%) sources. Throughout the 1990s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made steady progress in reducing mercury emissions from anthropogenic sources, especially from power plants, which account for 41% of anthropogenic emissions. However, the U.S. EPA recently proposed to slow this progress, citing high costs of pollution abatement. To put into perspective the costs of controlling emissions from American power plants, we have estimated the economic costs of methyl mercury toxicity attributable to mercury from these plants. We used an environmentally attributable fraction model and limited our analysis to the neurodevelopmental impacts--specifically loss of intelligence. Using national blood mercury prevalence data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we found that between 316,588 and 637,233 children each year have cord blood mercury levels > 5.8 microg/L, a level associated with loss of IQ. The resulting loss of intelligence causes diminished economic productivity that persists over the entire lifetime of these children. This lost productivity is the major cost of methyl mercury toxicity, and it amounts to $8.7 billion annually (range, $2.2-43.8 billion; all costs are in 2000 US$). Of this total, $1.3 billion (range, $0.1-6.5 billion) each year is attributable to mercury emissions from American power plants. This significant toll threatens the economic health and security of the United States and should be considered in the debate on mercury pollution controls.

Indexed as

Child WelfareEnvironmental ExposureAir PollutantsAir PollutionBrainChildCognition DisordersCost-Benefit AnalysisEnvironmental HealthHumansIntelligenceMercuryMethylmercury CompoundsPower PlantsPublic PolicyAir PollutantsMercuryMethylmercury Compounds

Identifiers

PMID15866768
PMCPMC1257552

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC0
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.