Prenatal rare earth element exposure associated with developmental delay at age two

A study published in BMC Medicine examined prenatal rare earth element exposure and childhood neurodevelopment in 1,045 participants in the Wuhan Healthy Baby Cohort. Researchers measured 13 elements in first-trimester maternal urine, profiled cord blood metabolites, and assessed development at age two using the Chinese revision of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Statistical models assessed individual and combined exposure associations, while metabolic network analyses explored potential mediating pathways.

After adjustment for covariates, each one-unit increase in natural log-transformed urinary concentrations of seven elements—neodymium, samarium, gadolinium, holmium, erbium, thulium and ytterbium—was associated with higher odds of cognitive developmental delay. Adjusted odds ratios ranged from 1.13 to 1.25, with P values below 0.05. Weighted quantile sum regression also linked combined exposure to cognitive and psychomotor developmental delays; ytterbium and cerium were the principal contributors to these respective outcomes.

Researchers identified 13 metabolic modules. Modules enriched in lysophospholipids and phosphatidylethanolamines were associated with prenatal exposure and partially mediated associations with developmental delay. These findings suggest a potential biological pathway warranting further investigation, rather than an established intervention target. The observational design cannot establish causality, and the supplied report does not provide absolute risks, confidence intervals or mediation effect sizes. Funding came from public and institutional sources; the authors declared no competing interests.