Abstract
Blue Baby Syndrome or Methemoglobinemia is caused by decreased ability of blood to carry oxygen, resulting in oxygen deficiency in different body parts. Infants are more susceptible than adults. The disease can be caused by intake of water and vegetables high in nitrate, exposure to chemicals containing nitrate, or can even be hereditary. Groundwater gets contaminated by leaching of nitrate generated from fertilizer used in agricultural lands and waste dumps in rural and urban areas. Prevention of water contamination, abstention from drinking contaminated water and controlling nitrate levels in drinking water by water treatment are effective preventive measures against nitrate poisoning.
Similar content being viewed by others
Suggested Reading
T M Addiscott, A P Whitmore and D S Powlson,Farming, Fertilizers and the Nitrate Problem, CAB International Wallingford, Oxon., 1991.
O C Bocktnan and T Granli, Human health aspects of nitrate intake from food and water In Chemistry,Agriculture and the Environment (ed M L Richardson), The Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, p. 373, 1991.
D D Weisenberger, Potential health consequences of groundwater contamination by nitrates in Nebraska. InNitrate Contamination: Exposure, consequence and control, eds I Bogardi and RD Kuzella, NATO ASI Ser. G: Ecological Sciences 30, Springer Verlag, Berlin, pp. 309–315, 1991.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Majumdar, D. The Blue Baby Syndrome. Reson 8, 20–30 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02840703
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02840703