CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 211Heavy Metal Exposure and ToxicityMercury impact and mitigation studiesAutism Spectrum Disorder Research

Mercury, lead, and zinc in baby teeth of children with autism versus controls

Adams, James B., Romdalvik, Jane, Ramanujam, V. M. Sadagopa, Legator, Marvin S.·2007·Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A
DOI 10.1080/15287390601172080
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

This study determined the level of mercury, lead, and zinc in baby teeth of children with autism spectrum disorder (n = 15, age 6.1 +/- 2.2 yr) and typically developing children (n = 11, age = 7 +/- 1.7 yr). Children with autism had significantly (2.1-fold) higher levels of mercury but similar levels of lead and similar levels of zinc. Children with autism also had significantly higher usage of oral antibiotics during their first 12 mo of life, and possibly higher usage of oral antibiotics during their first 36 mo of life. Baby teeth are a good measure of cumulative exposure to toxic metals during fetal development and early infancy, so this study suggests that children with autism had a higher body burden of mercury during fetal/infant development. Antibiotic use is known to almost completely inhibit excretion of mercury in rats due to alteration of gut flora. Thus, higher use of oral antibiotics in the children with autism may have reduced their ability to excrete mercury, and hence may partially explain the higher level in baby teeth. Higher usage of oral antibiotics in infancy may also partially explain the high incidence of chronic gastrointestinal problems in individuals with autism.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/15287390601172080

Cites

35 of 35 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Previous studies using teeth found no significant differences in lead, zinc or manganese between ASD cases and controls.

    “They found no significant differences in lead, zinc or manganese between cases and controls.”

    From Fetal and postnatal metal dysregulation in autism (2017) · cites this paper as [28]

  • Previous studies that used teeth from ASD cases to measure cumulative exposure to metals ground whole teeth, not taking advantage of the incremental microstructure that provides detailed temporal information.

    “Previous studies have used teeth from ASD cases to measure cumulative exposure to metals, but those studies ground whole teeth not taking advantage of the incremental microstructure that provides detailed temporal information28.”

    From Fetal and postnatal metal dysregulation in autism (2017) · cites this paper as [28]

  • GI disorders such as intestinal pain, constipation, and diarrhea are often associated with an altered composition of the gut microbiota.

    “GI disorders such as intestinal pain, constipation and diarrhea are often associated with an altered composition of the gut microbiota [28,132,140,141,142].”

    From Autism, Gastrointestinal Symptoms and Modulation of Gut Microbiota by Nutritional Interventions (2019) · cites this paper as [140]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Adams, J. B., Romdalvik, J., Ramanujam, V. M. S., & Legator, M. S.
Affiliations
  • Arizona State University (US)
  • The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (US)
Corresponding author
Adams, James B.
ORCID
Adams, James B.
Venue
Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2007-04-30
Volume
70
Issue
12
Pages
1046-1051
ISSN
  • 0098-4108 (ISSN-L)
  • 1528-7394
  • 1087-2620
DOI
10.1080/15287390601172080
OpenAlex
W2145885076
Cited by
211
References
35
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 12
FWCI
12.86
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Heavy Metal Exposure and Toxicity
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Mercury impact and mitigation studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, mercury, lead, zinc, primary teeth, dental biomarkers, oral antibiotics, gut microbiota, mercury excretion
MeSH terms
Administration, Oral, Anti-Bacterial Agents, Autistic Disorder, Body Burden, Child, Child, Preschool, Humans, Lead, Mercury, Tooth, Deciduous, Zinc, Case-Control Studies

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review