More than a century since a Brisbane doctor found that lead in paint destroyed children’s lives, new research from Griffith University concludes that it is a major risk factor for pre-eclampsia.
Pre-eclampsia is a disease which kills over 75,000 women internationally each year and is responsible for 9% of all fetal deaths.
Published in Environmental Research, the study reviewed the results of 11 previous international studies that measured blood lead levels of pregnant women who experienced pre-eclampsia and control groups of women who did not experience pre-eclampsia.
“We combined the data from a number of clinical trials to conduct a powerful analysis of pre-eclampsia research,” says Dr Arthur Poropat from Griffith Health.
Along with Dr Mark Laidlaw from RMIT University, the team found that blood lead levels are the strongest predictor of whether a pregnant woman will develop pre-eclampsia.
“We found that the link between high blood lead levels and pre-eclampsia is twice as strong
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