Developments in Brief : Lead Exposure Tied to Low Birth Weight

Children of women who had been exposed to lead during pregnancy are more likely to be underweight at birth and to develop more slowly, according to University of Cincinnati environmental medicine specialist Kathleen Krafft. She compared such effects of lead exposure to those produced by smoking during pregnancy.

In an extensive study of 320 inner-city families in Cincinnati, Krafft and colleagues examined the children every three months for the first year after birth and at yearly intervals thereafter. They found that the children did not react to sights and sounds as well as other children and that they also had poor eye-hand coordination.