characterization and toxicity mechanism of environmental risk factors (heavy metals) and reproductive health: a review paper

Environmental epidemiologic studies have identified many associations between human exposure to chemicals during pregnancy and maternal and child health outcomes. this study is a systematic review in which the impact of environmental hazards including kinetics and mechanisms of toxicity and ways of exposure to heavy metals on fetal health and fertility has been reviewed. search in scientific sites and search engines including sid, magiran, sciencedirect, google scholar, pubmed, springer and, scopus have been done using the desired keywords along with the review of sources that have provided the impact of environmental factors on fetal health and fertility. finding of this review study point to several evidences that prenatal maternal exposure to heavy metals is related to fetal epigenomic changes, direct effects on reproductive potential, retards of fetal growth and, other risks during pregnancy. accordingly, to achieve preventative processes including assessment, diagnosis and, planning for health promotion during pregnancy, developing national preventive guidelines to reduce exposure to heavy metals during pregnancy is inevitable.