Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY
Volume 169, Issue 3, Pages 304-312Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwn332
Keywords
arsenic; Bangladesh; birth weight; cohort studies; maternal exposure; urine
Categories
Funding
- United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
- Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
- United Kingdom Medical Research Council
- Swedish Research Council
- Department for International Development (DfID)
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B)
- Global Health Research Fund-Japan
- Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative (CHNRI)
- Uppsala University
- US Agency for International Development (USAID)
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The authors evaluated the association of prenatal arsenic exposure with size at birth (birth weight, birth length, head and chest circumferences). This prospective cohort study, based on 1,578 mother-infant pairs, was conducted in Matlab, Bangladesh, in 2002-2003. Arsenic exposure was assessed by analysis of arsenic in urine collected at around gestational weeks 8 and 30. The association of arsenic exposure with size at birth was assessed by linear regression analyses. In analysis over the full range of exposure (6-978 mu g/L), no dose-effect association was found with birth size. However, significant negative dose effects were found with birth weight and head and chest circumferences at a low level of arsenic exposure (< 100 mu g/L in urine). In this range of exposure, birth weight decreased by 1.68 (standard error (SE), 0.62) g for each 1-mu g/L increase of arsenic in urine. For head and chest circumferences, the corresponding reductions were 0.05 (SE, 0.03) mm and 0.14 (SE, 0.03) mm per 1 mu g/L, respectively. No further negative effects were shown at higher levels of arsenic exposure. The indicated negative effect on birth size at a low level of arsenic exposure warrants further investigation.
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