Genotoxic Effects of Lead in Human Populations

Carcinogenic and Genotoxic Effects of Lead in Human Populations 

The focus on lead as an environmental and public health hazard has principally centered on noncancer endpoints in various exposed human and experimental populations. There is, however, an extensive database for lead carcinogenicity, derived largely from Pb exposures of adult lead workers. 

One of the most problematic factors in evaluating Pb carcinogenesis in humans is the relative absence of a good exposure biomarker and particularly the absence of an exposure marker for an effect with a considerable latency period such as certain Pb-related cancers in humans. Added to this is the problem of markedly changing Pb exposures in human populations from previous decades to the present, declines which have been described quantitatively in earlier chapters. 

Blood lead as measured in those older segments of human populations with occupational Pb histories can potentially integrate cumulative Pb exposures, but only where there were serial PbB measurements done accurately and proficiently. In many cases, single exposure measures, e.g., PbB, were only used in the course of studies on workplace carcinogenic responses. Until the late 1970s, tittle regulatory oversight of measurements or laboratory 

Trace Metals and other Contaminants in the Environment, Volume 10 

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