ReviewInternational journal of hygiene and environmental health2014
Maternal arsenic exposure and birth outcomes: a comprehensive review of the epidemiologic literature focused on drinking water.
Review in International journal of hygiene and environmental health, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Female Reproductive Performance and Maternal Birth Month: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Exploring Multiple Seasonal Mechanisms.Scientific reports · 2020Pooled it
- Effects of maternal arsenic exposure on birth outcomes using harmonized data across three birth cohorts.Toxicology and environmental health sciences · 2026Article
- Impacts of the U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act Arsenic Rule on Arsenic OccurrenceEnvironmental science & technology · 2025Article
- Overview of foodborne hazards associated with inflammation and metabolic health.BMC global and public health · 2025Review
- Update of the risk assessment of inorganic arsenic in food.EFSA journal. European Food Safety Authority · 2024Article
- Associations between area-level arsenic exposure and adverse birth outcomes: An Echo-wide cohort analysis.Environmental research · 2023Article
- Toxic metal mixtures in private well water and increased risk for preterm birth in North Carolina.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2023Article
- The Changing Climate and Pregnancy Health.Current environmental health reports · 2022Review
- Cord serum elementomics profiling of 56 elements depicts risk of preterm birth: Evidence from a prospective birth cohort in rural Bangladesh.Environment international · 2021Article
- Nutrition, one-carbon metabolism and arsenic methylation.Toxicology · 2021Review
- Umbilical Cord Blood Metal Mixtures and Birth Size in Bangladeshi Children.Environmental health perspectives · 2021Article
- Child marriage, maternal serum metal exposure, and risk of preterm birth in rural Bangladesh: evidence from mediation analysis.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2021Article
- Prenatal Environmental Metal Exposure and Preterm Birth: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Cord blood DNA methylation of DNMT3A mediates the association between in utero arsenic exposure and birth outcomes: Results from a prospective birth cohort in Bangladesh.Environmental research · 2020Article
- Association between prenatal arsenic exposure, birth outcomes, and pregnancy complications: An observational study within the National Children's Study cohort.Environmental research · 2020Observational
- Characterization of trace elements exposure in pregnant women in the United States, NHANES 1999-2016.Environmental research · 2020Article
- Determinants of arsenic methylation efficiency and urinary arsenic level in pregnant women in Bangladesh.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2019Article
- Assessment of placental metal levels in a South African cohort.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2019Article
- Gene-environment interaction and maternal arsenic methylation efficiency during pregnancy.Environment international · 2019Article
- Sex-specific associations of infants' gut microbiome with arsenic exposure in a US population.Scientific reports · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Inorganic arsenic (iAs) is a human toxicant to which populations may be exposed through consumption of geogenically contaminated groundwater. A growing body of experimental literature corroborates the reproductive toxicity of iAs; however, the results of human studies are inconsistent. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive review of epidemiologic studies focused on drinking water iAs exposure and birth outcomes to assess the evidence for causality and to make recommendations for future study. We reviewed 18 English language papers assessing birth weight, gestational age, and birth size. Thirteen of the studies were conducted among populations with frequent exposure to high-level groundwater iAs contamination (>10 μg/L) and five studies were conducted in areas without recognized contamination. Most studies comprised small samples and used cross-sectional designs, often with ecologic exposure assessment strategies, although several large prospective investigations and studies with individual-level measurements were also reported. We conclude that: (1) the epidemiologic evidence for an increased risk of low birth weight (<2500 g) is insufficient, although there exists limited evidence for birth weight decreases; (2) the evidence for increased preterm delivery is insufficient; and, (3) there exists minimal evidence for decreased birth size. In further investigation of birth weight and size, we recommend incorporation of individual susceptibility measures using appropriate biomarkers, with collection timed to windows of vulnerability and speciated arsenic analysis, as well as consideration of populations exposed primarily to drinking water iAs contamination <10 μg/L. Given the large potential public health impact, additional, high quality epidemiologic studies are necessary to more definitively assess the risk.
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Registered trials
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.