Perinatal and Childhood Exposure to Cadmium, Manganese, and Metal Mixtures and Effects on Cognition and Behavior: A Review of Recent Literature

Lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) neurotoxicity is well established. In recent years, a growing body of evidence suggests that environmental exposure to other metals including arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and manganese (Mn) and their mixtures also poses public health threats. In this paper, we summarize the recent literature examining the relationship of prenatal and childhood environmental metal exposures with cognitive and behavioral outcomes in children. We conducted a literature search to identify epidemiologic studies that examined the relationship of Cd, Mn, and metal mixtures with children’s neurodevelopmental/cognitive and behavioral outcomes. We restricted the search to peer-reviewed studies published in English between January 2009 and March 2015. We identified a total of 31 articles of which 16, 17, and 16 studies examined the effects of Cd, Mn, or metal mixtures, respectively. Based on our review, there is suggestive evidence that prenatal/childhood Cd exposure may be associated with poorer cognition, but additional research is clearly needed. We found little evidence of behavioral effects of early life Cd exposure, and no studies found a significant relationship with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Studies of early life Mn exposure consistently reported negative impacts on both cognition and behavior. There is also growing evidence that co-exposure to multiple metals can result in increased neurotoxicity compared to single-metal exposure, in particular during early life. Few studies have evaluated behavioral effects related to metal co-exposure.