Researchers confirm lead in water causes adverse fetal health outcomes

Jul 14, 2022

New Delhi, July 14 (ANI): Researchers Lehigh University and Bentley University health economics have published the first study to confirm a causal relationship between lead in water and adverse fetal health outcomes. Their study exploits an exogenous, or external, change in the water's pH level that caused lead to leach into the drinking water of one plant's service area, but not the other's, to identify the causal effect of prenatal lead exposure on fetal health. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, there is no safe threshold for lead exposure that has been identified for children. Lead collects over time in the human body through repeated exposure and is stored in the bones alongside calcium. In utero exposure is of particular concern as lead in the mother's bones can be mobilised during pregnancy and released as a calcium substitute to aid in the formation of the bones of the fetus, and lead in a mother's blood can also cross the placenta, exposing the fetus to lead poisoning.