Parental Exposure to Lead and Adverse Birth Outcomes

• Main Authors: I-jen Pan, 潘懿真
• Other Authors: Pau-chung Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/08832455852779339061

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 職業醫學與工業衛生研究所 === 89 === Although lead is an ancient mental, it and its compounds are still important in industry at this time. There is still debate on whether lead exposure is relative to adverse birth outcomes. We utilized the occupational blood lead notification database to obtain blood lead levels (PbBs) as an indicator of exposure and tried to assess whether offspring of parents occupationally exposed to lead would be related to decrease of birth weight, shortened gestational ages or would have an increased risks of low birth weight, preterm births, and small for gestational age. Information of birth outcome was obtained from the Taiwan birth notification database. The linkage yielded 1611 eligible births born during 1994 to 1997. Maternal blood lead levels (PbBs) during pregnancy more than 30 μg/dl had a higher risk of mothering a child of small for gestational age (odds ratio (OR) = 3.03, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.32-6.98) and paternal PbBs during spermatogenesis prior to conception more than 30 μg/dl had a higher risk of fathering a child of small for gestational age (OR = 2.36, 95% CI = 1.02-5.47). The odds ratio of low birth weight was gradually but non-significantly increased with elevated maternal PbBs. No relation was detected between maternal or paternal PbBs and length of gestation. The main limitations were lack of occupational history and inability to control other possible confounders.