Exposure to mercury poses greater peril to fetuses than to mothers
When a pregnant woman is exposed to mercury— for instance, in contaminated fish—she may or may not become ill. Her fetus, though, is at greater risk than she is.
Organic mercury tends to persist in fetal tissues, causing levels of the metal up to three times those found in the mother, according to a paper presented at the recent meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Boston. W. Ann Reynolds, PhD, said that mercury crosses the placental barrier from mother to fetus rather slowly—but it returns even more slowly. The net effect is that "an acute maternal exposure may result in chronic fetal exposure."
Outbreaks of accidental mercury poisoning in Iraq, Japan, and the southwestern United States showed that the substance is dangerous to fetuses. Infants who could only have been exposed before birth had
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