Geologist Leads The Way In Mining Mothers' Bones
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday February 21, 1994
Dr Brian Gulson once explored for metals in the earth. Now the chief research scientist with the CSIRO's Division of Exploration Geoscience probes for lead in the bones of young women - women like Ms Nadia Terzieva.
Ms Terzieva, a 28-year-old Bulgarian computer engineer who migrated to Australia in 1992, is one of six Eastern European women who have volunteered to take part in a CSIRO study to determine whether babies can accumulate lead from the bones of their mothers while they are still in the womb.
Dr Gulson needs at least 100 more volunteers like Ms Terzieva - women aged between 18 and 35 who have migrated directly from Eastern Europe and are planning to have children.
There is no doubt a baby can contract lead from its mother's blood. But many scientists suspect the mother's bones, which can store lead far longer than blood, may be a more dangerous source.
Dr Gulson said it appeared that when the baby absorbed calcium from its mother's skeleton, it also absorbed the lead.
"If it gets across the placenta during pregnancy, that is a critical time for the development of the baby's central nervous system."
Lead could damage a young child's intelligence, hearing and balance. It was also suspected of triggering behavioural problems.
Dr Gulson's division, at North Ryde, which normally concentrates on research for the mining industry, is being funded by the American National Institute of Health and Environmental Sciences to conduct the three-year study.
It is being conducted here because Australian lead contains different isotopes from lead found elsewhere. Women from Eastern Europe have been chosen because the region is considered to have high lead pollution, making the metal easier to monitor in the tests.
Any Eastern European lead isotopes found in Australian-born babies would, almost certainly, have passed through the mother's bones.
Finding the isotopes in the bones of Australian-born children would mean unborn babies could very readily absorb lead long after the mother's exposure to the pollution source ceased.
"This is very dangerous," said Dr Gulson.
It would also indicate that lead stored in the bones could be passed from generation to generation, forming a toxic chain of inheritance which Dr Gulson described as "biological recycling".
The women in the program would have one or two millilitres of blood sampled as soon as possible after their arrival. Further samples would be collected regularly during the pregnancy and analysed by a mass spectrometer which could identify the isotopes.
After the birth, the baby's placental cord would be sampled to identify lead isotopes passed to the child. Samples of the baby's urine might be tested later.
Samples of the women's food, along with dust and air from their homes, would also be tested.
"We will pay the women $20 for every blood sample we take," Dr Gulson said. The CSIRO would also play the tooth fairy by paying $10 for any baby teeth that fell out. A tooth would be very valuable for the project as it would be the only source of bone from an infant, Dr Gulson said.
© 1994 Sydney Morning Herald