Quantification of arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium in newborn dried blood spots

Exposures to heavy metals during fetal and perinatal development are of particular concern. Yet, the health impacts of exposures to toxic metals during these early stages of human development are not well understood due to the paucity of in vivo human data. Dried blood spots (DBS), collected by public health departments to screen for inherited metabolic errors and other disorders, are routinely archived and can be used for exposure assessment. Here we report an improved method for quantifying arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium in newborn DBS to facilitate epidemiologic research on the health effects of early exposures to toxic metals.