A blood lead benchmark for assessing risks from childhood lead exposure

作者：Carlisle James C^*; Dowling Kathryn C; Siegel David M; Alexeeff George V

来源：Journal of Environmental Science and Health - Part A: Toxic/Hazardous Substances & Environmental Engineering , 2009, 44(12): 1200-1208.

DOI：10.1080/10934520903139829

• Lead
• toxicity
• children
• behavior
• neurodevelopment
• cognition
• IQ
• slope
• risk assessment

Lead exposure is an insidious problem, causing subtle effects in children at low exposure levels where clinical signs are not apparent. Although a target blood lead concentration (PbB) of ten micrograms per deciliter (10 mu g/dL) has been used as the basis for environmental decision-making in California for nearly two decades, recent epidemiologic evidence suggests a relationship between cognitive deficits and Pb(B) at concentrations <10 mu g/dL. Based on a published meta-analysis of children's IQ scores and their blood lead concentrations, we developed a new blood lead benchmark: an incremental increase in blood lead concentration (Delta Pb(B)) of 1 mu g/dL, an increase that we estimate could decrease the IQ score in an average school child in California by up to one point. Although there is no evidence to date for a threshold for the neurobehavioral effects of lead, a one-point IQ decrement was chosen to represent a de minimus change. To safeguard the intellectual potential of all children, additional efforts to reduce or eliminate multiple-source exposures to lead are warranted.

• 出版日期2009