Blood cadmium, lead, and mercury were not associated with reports of eczema in the general US population, according to a recent study. Researchers used National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cross-sectional data from 2005–2006. Eczema was measured among 4,509 adults and 3,898 non-adults. The association between eczema and tertiles of concentrations of cadmium, lead, and mercury was estimated using multivariate logistic regression models adjusted for different confounding variables; the estimation was also stratified by gender. They found:

• The prevalence of ever-report of eczema was 7.63% in adults and 13.42% in non-adults.
• None of the heavy metals was significantly associated with increased odds ratios of eczema after potential confounding variables were adjusted in the models.
• Results remained null after stratifying for gender.