Nickel pollution doesn't affect newborns' health

- Women exposed to nickel show no elevated risk of delivering newborns with certain birth defects or small size at birth, says the Norwegian researcher Arild Vaktskjold at the Nordic School of Public Health. Mr. Vaktskjold lead the research group that looked into the possible affects nickel pollution could have on newborns.

The project started after a study by the University of Tromsø in Northern Norway in the mid 90ties revealed elevated nickel levels in the urine of people living in the city of Nikel where a huge nickel smelter is operating. The city of Nikel is located some few kilometers from Russia’s border to Norway, but no such elevated nickel levels were found among the population on the Norwegian side of the border.

The study has been carried out as a joint Russian, Norwegian and Canadian project. –In this investigation we found that women working in nickel-exposed jobs show no elevated risk of delivering newborns with genital or musculo-skeletal defects, or small size for gestational age. Neither was there an association with the risk of spontaneous abortion, says Arild Vaktskjold.

However, Mr. Vaktskjold underlines that pregnant women living in the Norwegian-Russian border area should not be concerned about the emission of nickel to the air from the industry on the Kola Peninsula.

Read also: Norilsk-Nikel backs out from eco-deal

Over the last years, the pollution of different metals from the smelter in Nikel has increased. The fallout of cobber, nickel and arsenic on the Norwegian side of the border near Russia’s Nikel factory were four to seven times higher in the summer periods 2004 to 2008 than in the 15 years before.

Also, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority warns the population in the area not to eat reindeer meat more than two times a week if the reindeer comes from the Svanvik and Jarfjord areas. The restrictions are due to high levels of PCB and dioxins. Svanvik and Jarfjord are small Norwegian villages located into the Russian border.