Investigation of kinetic of lead during pregnancy and lactation.

Lead concentration was estimated in peripheral blood, milk as well as in cord blood in 47 women and their infants, using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Mean maternal blood lead concentration was 14.9 +/- 4.1 microg/dl, while in milk a mean level of 2.0 +/- 0. 5 microg/dl was estimated. Mean lead concentration in cord blood was 13.1 +/- 3.7 microg/dl. Analysis of these data showed a statistically significant correlation between lead maternal and cord blood concentration (r = 0.413, p = 0.01) or maternal blood and milk (r = 0.543, p < 0.01). The difference between maternal and cord blood might be indicative of a small filtering effect of placental tissue on lead transfer to the fetus. Placenta can determine 57.4% of the level of lead transferred to the fetus in a dynamic modus, while 42.6% depends on the pollution's level of mothers.