Environmental and Occupational Medicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University and National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Environmental and Occupational Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsin-Chu Branch, HsinChu, Taiwan.
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2023 Dec;268:115714. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.115714. Epub 2023 Nov 21.
The neurotoxic effects of certain heavy metals are well established, but only a few studies have investigated the joint effect of concurrent exposure to multiple ones. The study aims to evaluate the association between mixed exposure to neurotoxic metals and the psychosocial behavior of preschool children. Using a stratified sampling strategy, we recruited participants from 105 kindergartens in 41 townships of Taiwan and excluded those with blood lead levels ≥ 3.5 µg/L. The first-morning void urines were collected and analyzed for cadmium, manganese, arsenic, chromium, lead, and nickel concentrations using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. We applied the parentally reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham IV (SNAP-IV) scales to evaluate the psychosocial behaviors. Multiple linear regressions were utilized to evaluate the associations between each heavy metal and the outcomes, while the mixed effect of concurrent exposure was estimated by using a Quantile g-computation approach. A total of 977 preschool children were included in the study, and the mean (SD) age was 5.7 (0.7) years old. In single pollutant models, we observed adverse effects of urinary manganese, nickel, arsenic, and lead on the specific subsets of SDQ. Furthermore, the combined effect of six heavy metals significantly affected the hyperactivity/inattention symptoms (beta = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.13-0.78, with all metals increased by one quartile), and chromium and lead were the two major contributors. Similar detrimental effects of urinary cadmium and lead were also observed in the SNAP-IV subsets, although the joint effect analysis was not significant. The study provided evidence that concurrent exposure to multiple heavy metals may exert increased risks of hyperactivity/inattention in children compared to single pollutant exposure. Further studies are needed to verify our findings regarding mixed exposure to multiple neurotoxic metals.
某些重金属的神经毒性作用已得到充分证实,但仅有少数研究调查了同时接触多种重金属的联合效应。本研究旨在评估神经毒性金属混合暴露与学龄前儿童心理社会行为之间的关联。我们采用分层抽样策略,从台湾 41 个乡镇的 105 所幼儿园招募参与者,并排除血铅水平≥3.5μg/L 的参与者。采集清晨首次排空的尿液,使用电感耦合等离子体质谱法分析尿液中镉、锰、砷、铬、铅和镍的浓度。我们采用家长报告的长处与困难问卷(SDQ)和斯旺森、诺兰和佩勒姆行为评定量表第四版(SNAP-IV)评估心理社会行为。我们采用多元线性回归评估每种重金属与结果之间的关联,同时采用 Quantile g 计算方法估计同时暴露的混合效应。共纳入 977 名学龄前儿童,平均(SD)年龄为 5.7(0.7)岁。在单污染物模型中,我们观察到尿锰、镍、砷和铅对 SDQ 特定亚组有不良影响。此外,六种重金属的联合效应显著影响多动/注意力不集中症状(β=0.46,95%CI:0.13-0.78,所有金属增加一个四分位数),铬和铅是两个主要贡献者。在 SNAP-IV 亚组中,也观察到尿镉和铅的类似有害影响,但联合效应分析不显著。本研究提供了证据表明,与单一污染物暴露相比,多种重金属的同时暴露可能对儿童的多动/注意力不集中产生更高的风险。需要进一步的研究来验证我们关于多种神经毒性金属混合暴露的发现。
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