Environmental lead

Environmental Lead Contamination in December of 1965. More than half of its 32 participants represented the lead industry or federal health and research groups from Ohio and Michigan, strongholds of the automobile industry near Kehoe s laboratory. Attendees abandoned any pretense at neutrality and let their emotions and biases bubble over. Perhaps it s because the trigger, Dr. Patterson s article, is so obviously an emotional article, an observer commented. 

Jerome O. Nriagu. Clair Patterson and Robert Kehoe s Paradigm of Show Me the Data on Environmental Lead Poisoning. Environmental Research. 78 (Aug. 1998) 71-78. 

U.S. Public Health Service. Symposium on Environmental Lead Contamination. Dec. 13-15, 1965. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. FS2.2 646/4. 

A cohort mortality study was conducted to compare the mortality rates due to chronic renal disease in 4,519 battery plant workers and 2,300 lead production or smelter workers from 1947 to 1980 (Cooper 1988 Cooper et al. 1985). The mortality data for these workers were compared with national mortality rates for white males. Environmental lead levels and PbB levels were available for only about 30% of all workers for varying time periods from 1947 to 1972. Statistically significant increases in mortality from "other hypertensive disease" and "chronic nephritis" were seen in both lead cohorts. Limitations of this study include the fact that various confounding factors, such as smoking, were not accounted for, and the workers were probably exposed to other toxic chemicals. 

Numerous studies have attempted to correlate environmental lead levels with blood lead levels (Table 2-9). Slope factors have been calculated which attempt to predict increases in PbB ( pg/dL) per unit lead concentration in environmental media (EPA 1986a, 1989g). The relationship between media concentration and PbB is curvilinear, such that the slopes decrease with increasing lead concentrations. 

ALAD, an enzyme occurring early in the heme pathway, is also considered a sensitive indicator of lead effect (Hemberg et al. 1970 Morris et al. 1988 Somashekaraiah et al. 1990 Tola et al. 1973). Because there is no well-defined blood lead threshold at which inhibition of ALAD does not occur, it allows measurement of the effect on the general population at environmental lead levels and does not require high exposure levels as with occupational workers (Hemberg et al. 1970). However, ALAD activity may also be decreased with other diseases or conditions such as porphyria, liver cirrhosis, and alcoholism (Somashekaraiah et al. 1990). 

Environmental lead and children s National Institute of Child psychologic function Health and Human... 

Harry GJ National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences The effects of environmental lead on the level of specific nervous system genes and cell types National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences... 

Wedeen RP Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, East Orange, NJ Renal-hypertensive and cardiovascular effects of environmental lead, zinc, and cadmium exposure Department of Veterans Affairs Research and Development... 

Angle CR, Marcus A, Cheng I-H, et al. 1984. Omaha childhood blood lead and environmental lead A linear total exposure model. Environ Res 35 160-170. 

Angle CR, Mclntire MS. 1979. Environmental lead and children The Omaha study. J Toxicol Environ Health 5 855-870. 

Baghurst PA, McMichael AJ, Tong S, et al. 1995. Exposure to environmental lead and visual-motor integration at age 7 years The Port Pirie cohort study. Epidemiology 6(2) 104-109. 

Bemard BP, Becker CE. 1988. Environmental lead exposure and the kidney. Clin Toxicol 26 1-34. 

Braithwaite RA. 1987. A survey of childhood exposure to environmental lead in Walsall The importance of accuracy control. In National Meeting of the Association of Clinical Biochemists, Eastbourne, England, UK, May 11-15, 1987 Ann Clin Biochem 24 Sl-90-Sl-91. 

Chisolm JJ Jr. 1981. Dose-effect relationships for lead in young children Evidence in children for interactions among lead, zinc, and iron. In Lynam DR, Piantanida LG, Cole JF, eds. Environmental Lead Proceedings on the Second International Symposium on Environmental Lead Research, December, 1978, Cincinnati, Ohio. New York, NY Academic Press, 1-7. 

Clark CS, Bomschein RL, Succop P, et al. 1985. Conditions and type of housing as an indicator of potential environmental lead exposure and pediatric blood lead levels. Environ Res 38 46-53. 

EPA. 1979a. The environmental lead problem An assessment of lead in drinking water from a multimedia perspective. Washington, DC U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA 570/9-79-003, NTIS PB-296556. 

Flegal AR, Smith DR. 1995. Measurements of environmental lead contamination and human exposure. Rev Environ Contam Toxicol 143 1-45. 

GoyerRA. 1985. Renal changes associated with lead exposure. In Mahaffey KR, ed. Dietary and environmental lead Human health effects. Amsterdam, The Netherlands Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. 

Graziano J, Popovac D, Murphy M, et al. 1986. Environmental lead, reproduction and infant development. In Smith M, Grant LD, Sors A, eds. Lead exposure and child development An international assessment. Lancaster, UK KJuwer Academic Publishers. 

Mielke HW, Adams JL. 1989. Environmental lead risk in the twin cities. Center for Urban and Regional Affairs. Hubert H. Humphrey Center. CURA 89-84. 

Pocock SJ, Smith M, Baghurst P. 1994. Environmental lead and children s intelligence a systematic review of the epidemiological evidence. BrMedJ 309 1189-1197. 

Robinson GS, Keith RW, Bomschein RL, et al. 1987. Effects of environmental lead exposure on the developing auditory system as indexed by the brainstem auditory evoked potential and pure tone hearing evaluations in young children. In Lindberg SE, Hutchinson TC. eds. International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment, Vol. 1, New Orleans, LA. September. Edinburgh, UK CEP Consultants, Ltd., 223-225. 

Stark AD, Quah RF, Meigs JW, et al. 1982. The relationship of environmental lead to blood-lead levels in children. Environ Res 27 372-383. 

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