The relationship between maternal blood cadmium,zinc levels and birth weight of babies in non-occupationally exposed pregnant women in Benin city,Nigeria

The delivery of babies with low birth weight is a prognosis of neonatal mortality,morbidity and poor health outcomes later in life. this study evaluates the levels of cadmium,zinc and calculated cadmium/zinc ratio in non-occupationally exposed pregnant women at delivery and their relationship with birth weight of babies. blood cadmium,plasma zinc and calculated cadmium/zinc ratio were determined in 200 pregnant women at delivery and 100 non-pregnant women which served as controls. blood cadmium and plasma zinc were assayed by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometer and spectrophotometric method respectively. maternal blood cadmium and cadmium/zinc ratio were significantly higher in those with low birth weight (p<0.001) while plasma zinc was significantly lower than in those who gave birth to babies with normal weight (p<0.001). the anthropometric measurements: birth weight,head circumference and length were significantly lower in babies with low birth weight than in normal birth weight (p<0.05). blood cadmium and cadmium/zinc ratio correlated inversely with birth weight (r=-0.461; p<0.02) while plasma zinc,head circumference (r=0.392; p<0.05) and length (r=0.390; p<0.05) correlated positively with neonatal birth weight (r=0.482; p<0.02) (r=0.392; p<0.05) (r=0.390; p<0.05) respectively. concerted effort should be made to check environmental pollutions to avoid their harmful effects on human reproduction and birth weight of neonates. © cms uniben jmbr.