A Small Dose of Lead

• An Introduction into the Health Effects of Lead

Lead Dossier

• Name: Lead (Pb)
• Use: batteries, old paint, stabilizer in PVC, hobbies, solder, toys, X-ray shielding, smelters, and previously in gasoline and pesticides
• Source: home, paint, dust, toys, children hands to mouth, workplace, ethnic health remedies
• Recommended daily intake: none (not essential)
• Absorption: intestine (50% children, 10% adults), inhalation
• Sensitive individuals: fetus, children, and women of childbearing age
• Toxicity/symptoms: developmental and nervous system, lowered IQ, memory and learning difficulties, behavioral problems
• Regulatory facts: air - 0.5 mg/m3, drinking water 15 µg/L, not allowed in paint or automobile gasoline, 0.15 µg/m3 air standard
• General facts: long history of use, major problem in paint of older housing, areas around old smelters can be contaminated
• Environmental: global environmental contaminant
• Recommendations: avoid, wash hands, wash kids hands and toys, phase out uses in PVC plastics, child products, remove old lead-based paint

Lead Chapter

• A Small Dose of Lead - chapter pdf

PowerPoint presentation

• A Small Dose of Lead - PowerPoint presentation (2.5 mgb)

More Information and References

European, Asian, and international Agencies

• International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS). (accessed: 4 April 2009). "The two main roles of the IPCS are to establish the scientific health and environmental risk assessment basis for safe use of chemicals (normative functions) and to strengthen national capabilities for chemical safety (technical cooperation)."

• Australia - Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. (accessed: 4 April 2009). This site provides educational material about the sources of lead and strategies for living with lead.

North American Agencies

• Health Canada - Lead. (accessed: 4 April 2009). Health Canada provides information on the health effects of lead and remediation programs.

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics - Lead Program. (accessed: 4 April 2009). Site has information on lead health effects and lead abatement.

• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (accessed: 4 April 2009). Site has information on CDC lead program.

• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) - Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control (accessed: 4 April 2009). Site contains information on lead in English and Spanish.

• U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline - Phone: 1-800-426-4791. (accessed: 4 April 2009).

• U.S. EPA The National Lead Information Center - Phone: 1-800-424-LEAD (424-5323)

• U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration. (accessed: 4 April 2009).This site addresses work place lead exposure.

• U.S. Agency for Toxic Substance Disease Registry (ATSDR). (accessed: 4 April 2003). Toxicology Profile Series - Lead - The Lead Poisoning Prevention Outreach Program funded by the Environmental Health Center (EHC).

• Enviro-Health Links - Lead and Human Health U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Health & Human Services, Environmental Health and Toxicology

• Washington State, Department of Ecology - Lead Chemical Action Plan.. Reviews the source and use of lead in Washington and make recommendation on the reduction of lead exposure.

Non-Government Organizations

• Alliance for Healthy Homes. (accessed: 4 April 2009). Works on many issues to prevent and eliminate hazards in our homes that can harm the health of children, with reducing lead exposure as a priority.

• Washington Swan Working Group - an Affiliate of The Trumpeter Swan Society -Lead Poisoning. (accessed: 5 April 2009). Site has information on the lead poisoning of swans.

References

• Bellinger, D. C.: Neurological and behavioral consequences of childhood lead exposure. PLoS Med 2008, 5, e115.

• Gilbert SG. and Weiss B. A Rationale for Lowering the Blood Lead Action Level From 10 to 2 µg/dL. Neurotoxicology. 27(5), September 2006, pp 693-701.

• Needleman HL. The removal of lead from gasoline: historical and personal reflections. Environ Res. 2000 September, 84(1), pp 20-35.

• Carol H. Rubin, Emilio Esteban, Dori B. Reissman, W. Randolph Daley, Gary P. Noonan, Adam Karpati, Elena Gurvitch, Sergio V. Kuzmin, Larissa I. Privalova, Alexander Zukov, and Alexander Zlepko. Lead Poisoning among Young Children in Russia: Concurrent Evaluation of Childhood Lead Exposure in Ekaterinburg, Krasnouralsk, and Volgograd. Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 110, Number 6, June 2002

• Philip J. Landrigan, Clyde B. Schechter, Jeffrey M. Lipton, Marianne C. Fahs, and Joel Schwartz. Environmental Pollutants and Disease in American Children: Estimates of Morbidity, Mortality, and Costs for Lead Poisoning, Asthma, Cancer, and Developmental Disabilities Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 110, Number 7, July 2002

• MMWR (2001) Occupational and Take-Home Lead Poisoning Associated With Restoring Chemically Stripped Furniture - California, 1998. April 06, 2001, 50(13);246-248. (accessed: 3 April 2009).

• MMWR (2004) Brief Report: Lead Poisoning from Ingestion of a Toy Necklace — Oregon, 2003. June 18, 2004 / 53(23);509-511. (accessed: 3 April 2009).

• MMWR (2006) Death of a Child After Ingestion of a Metallic Charm — Minnesota, 2006. March 31, 2006 / 55(12);340-341. (accessed: 3 April 2009).

• David E. Jacobs, Robert P. Clickner, Joey Y. Zhou, Susan M. Viet, David A. Marker, John W. Rogers, Darryl C. Zeldin, Pamela Broene, and Warren Friedman. The Prevalence of Lead-Based Paint Hazards in U.S. Housing. Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 110, Number 10, October 2002

• Jack London. The People of the Abyss - lead workers - available on line http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/PeopleOfTheAbyss/