Hindawi Publishing Corporation BioMed Research International Volume 2013, Article ID 629716, 11 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/629716 Research Article Developmental Effects of Exposures to Environmental Factors: The Polish Mother and Child Cohort Study Kinga Polanska, 1 Wojciech Hanke, 1 Wojciech Sobala, 1 Malgorzata Trzcinka-Ochocka, 2 Danuta Ligocka, 2 Slawomir Brzeznicki, 3 Halina Strugala-Stawik, 4 and Per Magnus 5 1 Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, 8 Teresy Street, 91-348 Lodz, Poland 2 Department of Toxicology and Carcinogenesis, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, 8 Teresy Street, 91-348 Lodz, Poland 3 Department of Chemical Safety, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, 8 Teresy Street, 91-348 Lodz, Poland 4 he Foundation for Children from Copper Basin, 10 Okrzei Street, 59-220 Legnica, Poland 5 Division of Epidemiology, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, P.O. Box 4404 Nydalen, 0403 Oslo, Norway Correspondence should be addressed to Kinga Polanska; kinga@imp.lodz.pl Received 22 April 2013; Accepted 25 August 2013 Academic Editor: Anna Karakatsani Copyright © 2013 Kinga Polanska et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. his paper estimates the efects of exposure to environmental factors, including lead, mercury, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), on child psychomotor development. he study population consists of mother-child pairs in the Polish Mother and Child Cohort Study. Prenatal and postnatal exposure to environmental factors was determined from biomarker measurements as follows: for lead exposure—cord blood lead level, for mercury—maternal hair mercury level, for ETS— cotinine level in saliva and urine, and for PAH—1-hydroxypyrene (1-HP) in urine. At the age of 12 (406 subjects) and 24 months (198 subjects) children were assessed using Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development. here were no statistically signiicant efects of prenatal exposure to mercury or 1-HP on child psychomotor development. Ater adjusting for potential confounders, adverse efects of prenatal exposure to ETS on motor development ( = −2.6;  = 0.02) and postnatal exposure to ETS on cognitive ( = −0.2;  = 0.05) and motor functions ( = −0.5;  = 0.01) were found. he adverse efect of prenatal lead exposure on cognitive score was of borderline signiicance ( = −6.2;  = 0.06). he study underscores the importance of policies and public health interventions that aim to reduce prenatal and postnatal exposure to lead and ETS. 1. Introduction At present, special attention is given to prenatal and child- hood exposures to lifestyles and environmental factors and their impact on child neurodevelopment. Among a variety of contaminants, exposure to lead, mercury, and tobacco con- stituents have been widely investigated whereas the exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) has been less frequently examined. he majority of studies have conirmed neurodevelop- mental efects of blood lead levels (BLL) above 10 g/dL. his includes lowered intelligence, behavioral problems, deicits in academic achievements, and problem solving, as well as reductions in visual/spatial, motor, and language skills [1–3]. hanks to public health and regulatory activities the BLL sig- niicantly decreased, however, still many studies have found adverse efects of levels below 10 g/dL. he pooled analysis of international studies, performed by Lanphear et al. [2], indicates that the estimated IQ point decrement associated with an increase in BLL from 2.4 to 10 g/dL was 3.9 units (95% CI 2.4–5.3). he decrease was 1.9 units when BLL increased from 10 to 20 g/dL (95% CI 1.2–2.6), while it was 1.1 units (95% CI 0.7–1.5) from 20 to 30 g/dL. his observation suggests that the rate of decline in IQ scores might be even larger at BLL below 10 g/dL. Together with other data it indicates that no level of lead exposure appears to be safe and even the current relatively low levels of exposure in children are associated with neurodevelopmental deicits [1]. he evidence for adverse efects of prenatal mercury exposure on child neurodevelopment is more inconclusive. Exposure to mercury in some studies has been associated