Pregnant women are exposed to various contaminants through foods, environmental toxicants and aflatoxin (AF) are one of the major food contaminants. Therefore, this review was conducted for a better perspective on the AF exposure during pregnancy or infancy, highlighting how exposure through the mother (via placenta and breast milk) and directly through infant foods ultimately affects infant health. The literature suggests that AF exposure during pregnancy may lead to maternal anemia, premature delivery, pregnancy loss or decreased number of live births. AF crosses through placenta and also passes through breast milk. AF exposure during pregnancy may also lead to deleterious effects on fetus or infants such as reduced fetal growth, low birth weight, impairment of linear or long bone growth, and developmental delay such as small head circumference and reduced brain size, still birth or fetal death. It may also have adverse effect on some organ and organ systems causing aberrations such as neonatal jaundice and disrupting hormone synthesis. In Indian context, there are limited clinical studies to assess the health effects of AF exposure during pregnancy. For the first time, we have made an attempt to estimate the AF exposure by calculating the AF Estimated Daily Intake (EDI) using the empirical formulae based on several reported studies. However, more research needs to be undertaken to understand the AF exposure outcomes during pregnancy. The data presented in this review warrants more clinical studies in India on maternal AF exposure to elucidate the birth outcomes and associated infant health outcomes.

Despite the increased awareness and action towards Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), the glaciological community still experiences and perpetuates examples of exclusionary and discriminatory behavior. We here discuss the challenges and visions from a group predominantly composed of early-career researchers from the 2023 edition of the Karthaus Summer School on Ice Sheets and Glaciers in the Climate System. This paper presents the results of an EDI-focused workshop that the 36 students and 12 lecturers who attended the summer school actively participated in. We identify common threads from participant responses and distill them into collective visions for the future of the glaciological research community, built on actionable steps toward change. In this paper, we address the following questions that guided the workshop: What do we see as current EDI challenges in the glaciology research community and which improvements would we like to see in the next fifty years? Contributions have been sorted into three main challenges we want and need to face: making glaciology (1) more accessible, (2) more equitable and (3) more responsible.