• Black children are over twice as likely to have
elevated blood lead levels as whites, and low - income children over three times as likely as others.
Low blood lead levels associated with clinically diagnosed attention - deficit / hyperactivity disorder and mediated by weak cognitive control.
The program conducts investigations and provides information to the parents or guardians of children under the age of 18 that have tested positive for
elevated blood lead level.
Although the rate of young children tested with elevated
blood lead levels of at least 5 micrograms per deciliter, the amount which would trigger action by the local health department, has gradually declined from 6.4 percent in 2012 to 4.7 percent in 2016, 24 percent of tested children under six - years - old had a range of 3 - 4 micrograms per deciliter.
Kim Cecil, a chemist and professor of radiology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and an expert on the impact of lead on the brain, has found that whereas the language - function region of the brain's left hemisphere is perturbed by chronic lead exposure, corresponding regions in its right hemisphere show increased activation in the presence of
blood lead levels above current levels of concern.
«We are in full support of their work and County Executive Poloncarz's proposal to expand their impact by providing services for children who have
between blood lead levels of 5 - 9 micrograms per deciliter.»
«We found that the
increased blood lead levels of Flint children during the water crisis — while very concerning — was not higher than that found in years prior to 2013.»
Indeed, the lead situation in Syracuse has similarities to the ongoing situation in Flint, Michigan, where a change in the source of drinking water and a lack of preventative measures resulted in a dangerous increase in
blood lead levels for residents.
Still, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, no
safe blood lead level in children has been identified.
Our findings, combined with data
on blood lead levels in Flint children released by Dr. Mona Hanna - Attisha at Hurley Medical Center, finally prompted city, state and federal officials to declare emergencies in Flint and switch back to Detroit water.
Childhood blood lead levels in the city have been on a steady decline since 2006, with the exception of two spikes — including between 2014 and 2015 when lead contaminated the city's drinking water — according to the study led by Michigan Medicine and Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
Between 2006 and 2016, the percentage of children with
blood lead levels over 5 micrograms per deciliter (the level at which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends public health actions) dropped from 11.8 to 3.2 percent.
The benchmark is 10 micrograms lead per deciliter blood, but it is fairly well established that there is no safe level for lead, and health effects have been demonstrated
at blood lead levels of 2.5 micrograms per deciliter blood.
Perhaps even more surprising, the corpus callosum — the broad band of nerve fibers joining the two hemispheres — showed more conductivity in adults who had high
blood lead levels as children.
An exhaustive study of children with
blood lead levels averaging more than 17 mcg / dL, published in 2013 in NeuroToxicology, concluded: «It is unclear whether lead exposure or early childhood confounders were driving these associations [between lead and long - term cognitive impacts].»
And while it might seem daunting or feel too late (after all, 62,000 chemicals were grandfathered in with no safety testing when the Toxics Safety Control Act was passed in 1976), there are strong past successes from which to draw inspiration, like the banning of lead in wall paint and gasoline, after which average human
blood lead levels dropped impressively, or the Canadian trend to ban aesthetic pesticide use.
Health department numbers also show the percentage of Onondaga County children with elevated
blood lead levels declined from 9.1 percent in 2012 to 6.1 percent in 2015.
There is a growing body of research that
shows blood lead levels as low as 2 micrograms can cause irreversible harm to a child, such as a lowered IQ.
In addition, the data included children who tested for higher
blood lead levels earlier in the year and subsequently fell into the lower range after a second retest.
For lead exposure, for example, they used lead levels in drinking water or soil, and a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency model that translates the data into
projected blood lead levels.
But the lead levels in the water have not necessarily
created blood lead levels that will permanently damage mental functions in children if the effects of exposure are mitigated by urgent attention to education and health care.
The actual blood levels in Flint children have not been made public but researchers believe very few if any children
experienced blood lead levels that would by traditional standards be considered poisonous.
The percentage of Flint children with elevated
blood lead levels did double, rising from 2.4 to 4.9 percent between 2013 and 2015.
«In the 1970s, almost all Newark children and most adults had
blood lead levels greater than 5 micrograms per deciliter, but as in Flint, now only a small percentage do,» Bogden says.
The research team used data from Hurley, which is the major source of
pediatric blood lead levels in Flint, with 2006 being the earliest year available for analysis.
Authors note that the spike, which predates the Flint River water exposure by four years, is similar in magnitude to the increased
blood lead levels noted during the water crisis, and may need to be explored further.
The
mean blood lead level in 2015 during the height of the water crisis was 1.3 micrograms per deciliter, up from 1.19 in 2014 before the water source switch.
The result was the same: 37 micrograms per decileter of blood, almost 20 times the
median blood lead level among children in the US.
And it emerged this week that more than three quarters of Aboriginal children in Broken Hill have
blood lead levels above national guidelines.
Some of the claims are extrapolated from studies of children with far
higher blood lead levels and others are confounded by factors that are very difficult to control or account for.
Educational home visits and environmental referrals, as appropriate, based on blood lead levels
The study, which appears in the Journal of Pediatrics, found a decrease in Flint
childhood blood lead levels, from 2.33 micrograms per deciliter in 2006 to 1.15 micrograms per deciliter in 2016 — a historic low for the city.
Researchers also identified a random, unexplained increase in
blood lead levels over the time period analyzed, up from 1.75 micrograms per deciliter of children in 2010 to 1.87 micrograms per deciliter in 2011.
In a 2009 article in JAMA Pediatrics, Muennig estimated the economic benefits of
reducing blood lead levels to less than 1 μg / dL in the United States.
Phrases with «blood lead levels»