ArticlePeerJ2025
Association between toxic heavy metals and noncancerous thyroid disease: a scoping review.
Article in PeerJ, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Selenium and Iodine as Susceptibility Modifiers of Thyroid Disruption Associated with Metals: An Overview of Human and Experimental Research Data.Journal of xenobiotics · 2026Review
- The Thyroid Under Pressure: Heavy Metals, Endocrine Disruptors and Translational Insights into Carcinogenesis and Thyroid Dysfunctions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Back to the Roots: Safety and Tolerability of Standardised Ashwagandha (Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Toxic heavy metals such as chromium (Cr), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb) are known to be priority pollutants due to their high degrees of toxicity and widespread presence in the environment. This review aimed to explore the association between heavy metals and noncancerous thyroid diseases by synthesizing findings from observational and experimental studies. This review addressed a critical intersection of environmental health, endocrinology, and public health. The findings would be of interest to a wide range of disciplines given the ubiquitous presence of toxic heavy metals in the environment and their potential to disrupt endocrine systems. The evidence-based information from diverse fields generated from this review will provide insights into the health implications of heavy metal exposure on thyroid function and guide the necessary interdisciplinary research and collaborative interventions. Method: Three databases were searched, namely PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus. The Arksey and O'Malley (2005) framework was used as a guide in conducting this scoping review. The reporting was carried out based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and the Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA). The literature search retrieved 552 articles and 29 articles were included in the final review. Results: As high as 83% of the 29 included studies followed an observational study design while the rest were experimental animal studies. Among the observational studies, two-thirds (66%) were cross-sectional studies while the rest were case-control studies (31%) and cohort studies ( Conclusion: A heterogeneous and diverse sample population in the included studies could have potentially led to mixed findings about the association between toxic heavy metals and thyroid diseases in this review. Therefore, future research should prioritize longitudinal studies and controlled clinical trials to better elucidate the causative mechanisms and long-term impact of heavy metal exposure on thyroid health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.