ArticleEnvironmental research2015
Birth outcomes and background exposures to select elements, the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment (LIFE).
Article in Environmental research, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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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.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The influence of environmental exposures during the preconception period on offspring outcomes: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Mercury and Prenatal Growth: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Vitamin D Treatment during Pregnancy and Maternal and Neonatal Cord Blood Metal Concentrations at Delivery: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial in Bangladesh.Environmental health perspectives · 2020Trial
- The influence of paternal preconception health on infant birth weight: A scoping review.PloS one · 2026Article
- The influence of paternal preconception health on birth defects and head circumference: A scoping review.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Paternal Lead Exposure and Pregnancy Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Environmental health insights · 2025Review
- Review
- Update of the risk assessment of inorganic arsenic in food.EFSA journal. European Food Safety Authority · 2024Article
- Article
- Impact of Heavy Metals on Human Male Fertility-An Overview.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Paternal Exposure to Non-essential Heavy Metal Affects Embryo Cleavage and Implantation in Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) Cycles: Evidence for a Paradoxical Effect.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2021Article
- The Cumulative Risk of Prenatal Exposures to Chemical and Non-Chemical Stressors on Birth Outcomes in Suriname.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Exposure to a mixture of metals and growth indicators in 6-11-year-old children from the 2013-16 NHANES.Exposure and health · 2021Article
- Exposure to uranium and co-occurring metals among pregnant Navajo women.Environmental research · 2020Article
- Characterization of urinary concentrations of heavy metals among socioeconomically disadvantaged black pregnant women.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2020Article
- Examining the Relationship Between Low Birth Weight Occurrence and Passive Measures of Environmental Arsenic by Census Tract in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties, Florida.Environmental health insights · 2020Article
- The Cumulative Risk of Chemical and Nonchemical Exposures on Birth Outcomes in Healthy Women: The Fetal Growth Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Toward Capturing the Exposome: Exposure Biomarker Variability and Coexposure Patterns in the Shared Environment.Environmental science & technology · 2018Article
- A Review of the Effects of Chronic Arsenic Exposure on Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2017Review
- Urinary phthalate and phthalate alternative metabolites and isoprostane among couples undergoing fertility treatment.Environmental research · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Evidence suggests that trace exposures to select elements may increase the risk for adverse birth outcomes. To investigate further, we used multiple regression to assess associations between preconception parental exposures to Pb, Cd, and total Hg in blood, and 21 elements in urine, with n=235 singleton birth outcomes, adjusted for confounders and partner's exposure. Earlier gestational age at delivery (GA) was associated with higher tertiles of urine maternal W (-1.22 days) and paternal U (-1.07 days), but GA was later for higher tertiles of maternal (+1.11 days) and paternal (+1.30 days) blood Hg. Additional analysis indicated shorter GA associated with higher paternal urine Ba, W, and U, and with higher maternal blood Pb for boys, but GA was longer in association with higher maternal urine Cr. Birth weight (BW) was lower for higher tertiles of paternal urine Cs (-237.85g), U (-187.34g), and Zn (-209.08g), and for higher continuous Cr (P=0.021). In contrast, BW was higher for higher tertiles of paternal urine As (+194.71g) and counterintuitively for maternal blood Cd (+178.52g). Birth length (BL) was shorter for higher tertiles of urine maternal W (-1.22cm) and paternal U (-1.10cm). Yet, higher tertiles of maternal (+1.11cm) and paternal (+1.30) blood Hg were associated with longer BL. Head circumference at delivery was lower for higher tertiles of paternal urine U (-0.83cm), and for higher continuous Mo in boys (-0.57cm). Overall, associations were most consistently indicated for GA and measures of birth size with urine W and U, and paternal exposures were more frequently associated than maternal. Though limited by several factors, ours is the largest multi-element investigation of prospective couple-level trace exposures and birth outcomes to date; the novel observations for W and U merit further investigation.
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