Relation of Prenatal Methylmercury Exposure from Environmental Sources to Childhood IQ.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Although prenatal methylmercury exposure has been linked to poorer intellectual function in several studies, data from two major prospective, longitudinal studies yielded contradictory results. Associations with cognitive deficits were reported in a Faroe Islands cohort, but few were found in a study in the Seychelles Islands. It has been suggested that co-exposure to another contaminant, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), may be responsible for the positive findings in the former study and that co-exposure to nutrients in methylmercury-contaminated fish may have obscured and/or protected against adverse effects in the latter.

Objectives

We aimed to determine the degree to which co-exposure to PCBs may account for the adverse effects of methylmercury and the degree

SUBMITTER: Jacobson JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4529008 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature