Journal
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND HEALTH PART A-TOXIC/HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
Volume 44, Issue 12, Pages 1200-1208Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
DOI: 10.1080/10934520903139829
Keywords
Lead; toxicity; children; behavior; neurodevelopment; cognition; IQ; slope; risk assessment
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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.
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