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Background:

Manganese is both an essential element and a known neurotoxicant to children. High manganese exposures have been associated with negative reproductive outcomes in animals, but few epidemiologic studies have examined the effects of human fetal manganese exposure.

Methods:

We studied the association between maternal and umbilical cord blood manganese levels and birth weight in a cohort of 470 mother-infant pairs born at term (≥ 37 weeks gestation) in Ottawa County, Oklahoma. Nonlinear spline and quadratic regression models were used to test the hypothesis of an inverted U-shaped relationship between manganese levels and birth weight.

Results:

Mean (standard deviation) concentration of manganese was 2.4 (0.95) μg/dL in the maternal blood and 4.2 (1.6) μg/dL in the cord blood. Umbilical cord manganese was not associated with birth weight. A nonlinear relationship was …