Total mercury exposure in early pregnancy has no adverse association with scholastic ability of the offspring particularly if the mother eats fish
There is a public perception that relatively low doses of mercury found in seafood are harmful to the fetal brain but little consistent evidence to support this. In earlier publications we have shown no adverse associations between maternal total blood mercury levels and child behaviour, early devel...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2018-07-01
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| Series: | Environment International |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412017320408 |
| _version_ | 1819041888609501184 |
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| author | Joseph Hibbeln Steven Gregory Yasmin Iles-Caven Caroline M. Taylor Alan Emond Jean Golding |
| author_facet | Joseph Hibbeln Steven Gregory Yasmin Iles-Caven Caroline M. Taylor Alan Emond Jean Golding |
| author_sort | Joseph Hibbeln |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There is a public perception that relatively low doses of mercury found in seafood are harmful to the fetal brain but little consistent evidence to support this. In earlier publications we have shown no adverse associations between maternal total blood mercury levels and child behaviour, early development or cognitive function as measured by IQ. However, for IQ the lack of adverse association was conditional upon the mother being a fish eater.In this paper we analyse further data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), this time examining whether prenatal exposure to total mercury is associated with the child's scholastic abilities in reading, spelling, phoneme awareness, mathematics and science; the number of participants with prenatal mercury and relevant test results varied from 1500 to 2200. Multiple regression was used to assess relationships between prenatal total blood mercury concentrations and 16 different test results, after taking account of a variety of potential confounders; in parallel, logistic regression was used to determine associations with the risk of the child being in the lowest 15% of each score. Analyses were repeated stratifying for fish consumption and sex of the child.There was no evidence of harm associated with the level of total mercury, provided the mother ate fish during pregnancy. This was particularly true for tests of mathematics and science. We conclude that women should be confident that eating fish in pregnancy is beneficial for their unborn child. Keywords: ALSPAC, Prenatal mercury, Prenatal fish consumption, Reading, Mathematics, Science |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T09:32:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-002e5e77f60d4fc9be94f8a3ae4c1213 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0160-4120 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T09:32:09Z |
| publishDate | 2018-07-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environment International |
| spelling | doaj.art-002e5e77f60d4fc9be94f8a3ae4c12132022-12-21T19:08:42ZengElsevierEnvironment International0160-41202018-07-01116108115Total mercury exposure in early pregnancy has no adverse association with scholastic ability of the offspring particularly if the mother eats fishJoseph Hibbeln0Steven Gregory1Yasmin Iles-Caven2Caroline M. Taylor3Alan Emond4Jean Golding5Section on Nutritional Neurosciences, Laboratory of Membrane Biophysics & Biochemistry, Nat. Institutes on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism, NIH, 31 Center Drive 1B/58, Bethesda, MD 20892, USACentre for Child and Adolescent Health, Bristol Medical School (Public Health Sciences) University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol BS8 2BN, UKCentre for Child and Adolescent Health, Bristol Medical School (Public Health Sciences) University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol BS8 2BN, UKCentre for Child and Adolescent Health, Bristol Medical School (Public Health Sciences) University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol BS8 2BN, UKCentre for Child and Adolescent Health, Bristol Medical School (Public Health Sciences) University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol BS8 2BN, UKCentre for Child and Adolescent Health, Bristol Medical School (Public Health Sciences) University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol BS8 2BN, UK; Corresponding author at: Centre for Child & Adolescent Health, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Oakfield House, Oakfield Grove, Bristol BS8 2BN, UK.There is a public perception that relatively low doses of mercury found in seafood are harmful to the fetal brain but little consistent evidence to support this. In earlier publications we have shown no adverse associations between maternal total blood mercury levels and child behaviour, early development or cognitive function as measured by IQ. However, for IQ the lack of adverse association was conditional upon the mother being a fish eater.In this paper we analyse further data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), this time examining whether prenatal exposure to total mercury is associated with the child's scholastic abilities in reading, spelling, phoneme awareness, mathematics and science; the number of participants with prenatal mercury and relevant test results varied from 1500 to 2200. Multiple regression was used to assess relationships between prenatal total blood mercury concentrations and 16 different test results, after taking account of a variety of potential confounders; in parallel, logistic regression was used to determine associations with the risk of the child being in the lowest 15% of each score. Analyses were repeated stratifying for fish consumption and sex of the child.There was no evidence of harm associated with the level of total mercury, provided the mother ate fish during pregnancy. This was particularly true for tests of mathematics and science. We conclude that women should be confident that eating fish in pregnancy is beneficial for their unborn child. Keywords: ALSPAC, Prenatal mercury, Prenatal fish consumption, Reading, Mathematics, Sciencehttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412017320408 |
| spellingShingle | Joseph Hibbeln Steven Gregory Yasmin Iles-Caven Caroline M. Taylor Alan Emond Jean Golding Total mercury exposure in early pregnancy has no adverse association with scholastic ability of the offspring particularly if the mother eats fish Environment International |
| title | Total mercury exposure in early pregnancy has no adverse association with scholastic ability of the offspring particularly if the mother eats fish |
| title_full | Total mercury exposure in early pregnancy has no adverse association with scholastic ability of the offspring particularly if the mother eats fish |
| title_fullStr | Total mercury exposure in early pregnancy has no adverse association with scholastic ability of the offspring particularly if the mother eats fish |
| title_full_unstemmed | Total mercury exposure in early pregnancy has no adverse association with scholastic ability of the offspring particularly if the mother eats fish |
| title_short | Total mercury exposure in early pregnancy has no adverse association with scholastic ability of the offspring particularly if the mother eats fish |
| title_sort | total mercury exposure in early pregnancy has no adverse association with scholastic ability of the offspring particularly if the mother eats fish |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412017320408 |
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