Cadmium level in pregnant women venous blood and related risk

Abstract

Objective: The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified cadmium and cadmium compounds as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1). The secondhand smoke is a well-recognized source of human exposure to cadmium. An average cigarette has 1-2 µg of cadmium and one cigarette has been found to raise the blood cadmium level by 0.1-0.2 µg/L. Although by 2012, the smoking is prohibited in public indoor places for our country, laws do not limit exposure to second hand smoke in home indoor environment where women and children are exposed through the smoking of male family members. Therefore, there is a need to study the exposure to second hand smoke during pregnancy. Methods: In this study 540 participants were participated, and 383 out of them gave blood samples to determine the blood cadmium level, in an intervention group (53.7% 206) received 1 or 2 HEPA air cleaners and in the control group (46.6% 177) not received the air cleaners. Study participants, pregnant women after 9 weeks of gestation gave blood samples for blood cadmium level. Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to assess the levels of cadmium. In Statistical Analysis was performed using STATA 15. Results: The mean of maternal age was 28.9±5.5 years. The mean of gestational age was 10.39±2.62 weeks. Geometric mean (GM) of cadmium level in blood in intervention group (GM=0.23 µg/L; 95%CI: 0.21-0.26 µg/L) was lower by 0.05µg/L when compared to the control group (GM=0.28 µg/L; 95%CI: 0.24-0.31 µg/L). The difference is statistically significant (p>0.05) between two groups. In a study of exposure to second hand smoke during pregnancy in related to cadmium levels in the blood, 43.6% (n=167) of all participants said that their family members smoked during pregnance. Of these 23.3% (39) pregnant women were exposed to secondhand smoke every day. The level of cadmium in the blood of women exposure to secondhand smoke (GM=0.37 µg/L; 95%CI: 0.26-0.48 µg/L) in the group of 76.7% (n=128) not exposure daily (GM=0.25 µg/L; 95%CI: 0.21-0.28 µg/L) is higher by 0.12 µg/L compared to statistical significance (p=0.004). Conclusion: Exposure of mothers to second hand smoke has a considerable impact on increase of cadmium concentration in their blood. Also the participants who used an air purifier (HEPA filter) could potentially decrease cadmium concentration in mother’s whole blood.