Environmental and Occupational Health

Inorganic arsenic and its metabolites readily cross the placenta, which raises concerns about the health effects on the developing fetus. Toxicological studies in animals have demonstrated that high doses of arsenic are embryotoxic and teratogenic. Extrapolating arsenic's ability to contribute to reproductive disorders is challenging because the administered doses in animal models is considerably higher than what is encountered from environmental exposures and there is considerable interspecies variability in arsenic's toxicokinetics. This chapter examines both the toxicological and epidemiological evidence that developmental exposure to arsenic causes reproductive disorders including birth defects, infant mortality, low birth weight, and in fertility.