ArticleEnvironmental health perspectives2015
Relation of Prenatal Methylmercury Exposure from Environmental Sources to Childhood IQ.
Article in Environmental health perspectives, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 116 citations in OpenAlex.
- Relationship of prenatal methylmercury exposure and language/verbal function: a meta-analysis.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2025Pooled it
- Statement on the findings presented in the Toxicological Profile for Mercury issued by the US ATSDR.EFSA journal. European Food Safety Authority · 2026Article
- Maternal environmental exposure and early-life health risks: The modulating role of nutritional status-A scoping review.iScience · 2026Review
- Trace Element Intake from Dairy-Free Infant Porridges and Its Nutritional and Safety Implications for Infants Aged Six Months and Older.Nutrients · 2026Article
- SIRT3/AMPK-Driven Mitophagy Failure Underlies Methylmercury-Induced Neurotoxicity: Evidence from Humans to Cells.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Article
- Associations between prenatal exposure to a mixture of lead, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls and executive function in Inuit adolescents.Environmental research · 2025Article
- An engineered gut bacterium protects against dietary methylmercury exposure in pregnant mice.Cell host & microbe · 2025Article
- SRXN1 is a novel protective factor against methylmercury-induced apoptosis in C17.2 mouse neural stem cells.Toxicological research · 2025Article
- Methylmercury Induces Apoptosis in Mouse C17.2 Neural Stem Cells through the Induction of OSGIN1 Expression by NRF2.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Postnatal methylmercury exposure and neurodevelopmental outcomes at 7 years of age in the Seychelles Child Development Study Nutrition Cohort 2.Neurotoxicology · 2023Article
- The Contribution across Three Generations of Mercury Exposure to Attempted Suicide among Children and Youth in Grassy Narrows First Nation, Canada: An Intergenerational Analysis.Environmental health perspectives · 2023Article
- Prenatal and childhood chlordecone exposure, cognitive abilities and problem behaviors in 7-year-old children: the TIMOUN mother-child cohort in Guadeloupe.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2023Article
- Pre- and postnatal exposure to legacy environmental contaminants and sensation seeking in Inuit adolescents from Nunavik.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Prenatal exposure to chemical mixtures and working memory among adolescents.Environmental research · 2022Article
- Associations between developmental exposure to environmental contaminants and spatial navigation in late adolescence.New directions for child and adolescent development · 2022Article
- A Narrative Review of Toxic Heavy Metal Content of Infant and Toddler Foods and Evaluation of United States Policy.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Review
- Methylmercury induces neuronal cell death by inducing TNF-α expression through the ASK1/p38 signaling pathway in microglia.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- A descriptive analysis of blood mercury test results in British Columbia to identify excessive exposures.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2021Article
- Article
- Human Health and Ocean Pollution.Annals of global health · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlthough prenatal methylmercury exposure has been linked to poorer intellectual function in several studies, data from two major prospective, longitudinal studies yielded contradictory results. Associations with cognitive deficits were reported in a Faroe Islands cohort, but few were found in a study in the Seychelles Islands. It has been suggested that co-exposure to another contaminant, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), may be responsible for the positive findings in the former study and that co-exposure to nutrients in methylmercury-contaminated fish may have obscured and/or protected against adverse effects in the latter.
objectivesWe aimed to determine the degree to which co-exposure to PCBs may account for the adverse effects of methylmercury and the degree to which co-exposure to docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) may obscure these effects in a sample of Inuit children in Arctic Québec.
methodsIQ was estimated in 282 school-age children from whom umbilical cord blood samples had been obtained and analyzed for mercury and other environmental exposures.
resultsPrenatal mercury exposure was related to poorer estimated IQ after adjustment for potential confounding variables. The entry of DHA into the model significantly strengthened the association with mercury, supporting the hypothesis that beneficial effects from DHA intake can obscure adverse effects of mercury exposure. Children with cord mercury ≥ 7.5 μg/L were four times as likely to have an IQ score < 80, the clinical cut-off for borderline intellectual disability. Co-exposure to PCBs did not alter the association of mercury with IQ.
conclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first study to document an association of prenatal mercury exposure with poorer performance on a school-age assessment of IQ, a measure whose relevance for occupational success in adulthood is well established. This association was seen at levels in the range within which many U.S. children of Asian-American background are exposed.
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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.