Blood lead and other metals among pregnant women in Bangladesh: national prevalence, geographic variation and household child exposure

Background. Lead crosses the placenta and harms the developing brain, and no safe level is known. Bangladesh lacks national estimates of lead exposure in pregnancy. Objectives. We estimated blood lead in pregnant women nationally, described where and in whom it was raised, and examined links with child lead and haemoglobin. Methods. In the Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2025, 1,932 of 2,711 eligible pregnant women (71%) had valid venous blood results. Survey-weighted modified Poisson models estimated prevalence ratios (PR) for blood lead of 3.5 microgram/dL or more, an analytical

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