Determination of Blood Serum Lead and Cadmium Level during Pregnancy in Gas Flaring Communities of Bayelsa State Nigeria

This research study determines and compare the level of serum lead and cadmium among pregnant and non-pregnant women living in selected gas flaring communities in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Two hundred apparently healthy pregnant women and one hundred non-pregnant as control were randomly selected as participants for this study. The prevalence of elevated serum lead (>0.1ppm) above the world health organization permissible range among the non-pregnant and pregnant subjects was (2%) and (5%) while that of cadmium (>0.0012 ppm) was (11.33%) and (19.66%) respectively. However the total prevalence of elevated heavy metals in the blood of non-pregnant and pregnant subjects was (6.66%) and (12.33%).The study reveal a non-significant increased concentration of Lead level among the non-pregnant control group (0.07 ppm) to that of the pregnant (0.05 ppm) with no difference in their cadmium (0.01 ppm) level. The study reveal a non-significant slight increase in the level of Lead among the pregnant test group (0.06 ppm) during their third trimester when compared with those in their first and second trimesters (0.05 ppm) with cadmium blood level of (0.02 ppm) among those in their third trimester. This research study have been able to confirm that the longer the duration of exposure to gas flares in years the higher the concentration of lead and cadmium in the serum of pregnant and non-pregnant women in Bayelsa state, Nigeria.