Assessment of Haemoglobin Status and Transplacental Transport of Lead and Calcium During Geophagy

Abstract

The consumption of Pb contaminated kaolin can be linked to fetal Pb exposure since Pb mimics calcium in its assimilation mechanism or active transfer to the foetus. Exposure to Pb equally increases susceptibility to iron deficiency. The study occurred postpartum to determine Pb and calcium in cord blood as well as the Hb levels of 54 pregnant women consuming kaolin. They included; 15 habitual consumers of kaolin, 15 previous consumers of kaolin and 24 non-consumers of kaolin. Statgraphic 5.0 was used for data analyses. Neonatal cord blood Pb values of the subjects starts from 0 μg/100 g in habitual consumers of kaolin, increasing to a mean value of 76.2 ± 59 μg/100 g for non-consumers of kaolin then to 178.6 ± 88.4 μg/100g of whole blood for previous consumers of kaolin with statistical significance between the groups (p=0.001). Kaolin-eating was associated with modest increase of calcium in cord blood of habitual consumers of kaolin correlating negatively to Pb (r=-0.99). Hemoglobin values increased from habitual consumers of kaolin (10.6 g/dl) through previous consumers of kaolin (12.3 g/dl) to nonconsumers of kaolin (13.03 g/dl). This study reveals that Pb does not pass into cord blood during kaolin-eating but does so for previous consumers of kaolin. Local kaolin-eating leads to low Hb level in human.