A Small Dose of Lead

PowerPoint Presentation (also available in Acrobat format)
References / Additional Information (updated 05/21/06)

An argument for resetting the CDC action level for children's blood lead from 10 to 2 mcg/dl - Campaign LEAD 10 to 2 and statements in support of low level health effects of lead. Washington State Public Health Association Newsletter article (winter 2005, pp 10-11).

History of Lead

LEAD DOSSIER
Name: Lead (Pb)
Use: batteries, old paint and previously gasoline, hobbies, solder
Source: home, paint, dust, kids-hands to mouth, and workplace
Recommended daily intake: none (not essential)
Absorption: intestine (50% kids, 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: CDC action level for children 10 µg/dl, air - 0.5 mg/m3, EPA - drinking water 15 µg/L, not allowed in paint or automobile gasoline, No EPA RfD or RfC, No ATSDR MRL, California drinking water 2 µg/L.
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

REFERENCES / ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

European, Asian, and International Agencies

• International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS). (accessed: 4 April 2003).
  "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 - New South Wales (NSW) Environment Protection Authority - Lead, your health and the environment. (accessed: 23 April 2003).
  This site provides educational material about the sources of lead and strategies for living with lead.
  

North American Agencies

• U.S. National Library of Medicine's (NLM) Enviro-Health Links - Lead and Environmental Health. (accessed: 21 May 2006).
• California's Proposition 65 - Public Health Goals for lead in the water 2 ppb. (accessed: 22 October 2004).
• Health Canada - Lead. (accessed: 9 April 2003).
  Health Canada provides information on the health effects of lead and remediation programs.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). All-Ages Lead Model (AALM) Version 1.05 (External Review Draft) (Accessed: 2 October, 2005).
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and HUD - Protect Your Family From Lead in Your Home (Accessed: 31 October 2004).
  Multiple page brochure on your rights and protecting your family for lead.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Integrated Exposure Uptake Biokinetic Model for Lead in Children (IEUBK) (accessed: 6 October 2004).
  Site attempts to predict blood-lead concentrations (PbBs) for children exposed to lead in their environment - interactive model can be downloaded.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics - Lead Program. (accessed: 4 April 2003).
  Site has information on lead health effects and lead abatement.
• U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Health Topic: Lead. (accessed: 17 October 2004).
  Site has information on health effects of lead.
• U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDC Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. (accessed: 17 October 2004).
  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 2003).
  Site contains information on lead in English and Spanish.
• U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline - Phone: 1-800-426-4791
• U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration. (accessed: 4 April 2003).
  This site addresses work place lead exposure.
• National Safety Council - Lead Poisoning - happens more than you think. accessed: 12 September 2004).
  Mission - To educate and influence society to adopt safety, health and environmental policies, practices and procedures that prevent and mitigate human suffering and economic losses arising from preventable causes.
• U.S. Agency for Toxic Substance Disease Registry (ATSDR). (accessed: 4 April 2003).
  Toxicology Profile Series - Lead - ToxFAQs (fact sheet) The Lead Poisoning Prevention Outreach Program funded by the Environmental Health Center (EHC).
• History of Lead Advertising - Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. (accessed: 29 February 2004).

   

Non-Government Organizations

• History of Lead Advertising. Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. (accessed: 16 April 2005).
  A look lead paint advdertizing 1900-1955, when the lead industry sought to counter negative publicity by developing a campaign to "Cater to the Children."
• Clean Water Lead Testing Inc. (CWLTI) is non-profit, nationally certified testing service for lead, copper, and arsenic in drinking water (National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference) offered by the Environmental Quality Institute at the University of North Carolina. (accessed: 31 October 2004).
• The Environmental Quality Institute (EQI) conducts research on water contamination issues through the University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNCA). (accessed: 31 October 2004).
  EQI has a significant program on water testing and lead exposure prevention.
• "Playing with Poison -- Lead Poisoning Hazards of Children's Product Recalls 1990 - 2004" A report by Kids in Danger (Chicago based non-profit) - (pdf file) - primarily focuses on product safety for children.
• The National Lead Information Center - Phone: 1-800-424-LEAD (424-5323)
• Alliance for Healthy Homes - Protecting Children from Lead and Other Environmental Health Hazards. (accessed: 25 October 2004).
• Washington Swan Working Group - an Affiliate of The Trumpeter Swan Society -Lead Poisoning. (accessed: 24 April 2003).
  Site has information on the lead poisoning of swans.
  

A History of Lead

• History of Lead Advertising. Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. (accessed: 16 April 2005).
  A look lead paint advdertizing 1900-1955, when the lead industry sought to counter negative publicity by developing a campaign to "Cater to the Children."
• Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution
  by Gerald E. Markowitz, David Rosner. 2002. University of California Press. "Throughout world history, industry managers and laborers alike understood that work was dangerous..."
• Markowitz, G., and Rosner, D. (2000). "Cater to the children": the role of the lead industry in a public health tragedy, 1900-1955. Am J Public Health 90, 36-46.
• Needleman HL. The removal of lead from gasoline: historical and personal reflections. Environ Res. 2000 September, 84(1), pp 20-35.
• THE PEOPLE OF THE ABYSS by Jack London - lead workers

• 6500 BCE - Lead discovered in Turkey, first mine
• 500 BC-300 AD.- Roman lead smelting produces dangerous emissions
• 100 BC. - Greek physicians give clinical description of lead poisoning.
• Lead makes the mind give way." Greek Dioscerides - 2nd BC
• Historical Awareness - “If we were to judge of the interest excited by any medical subject by the number of writings to which it has given birth, we could not but regard the poisoning by lead as the most important to be known of all those that have been treated of, up to the present time.” Orfila, 1817
  
  
  1887 - US medical authorities diagnose childhood lead poisoning
  1904 - Child lead poisoning linked to lead-based paints
  1909 - France, Belgium and Austria ban white-lead interior paint
  1914- Pediatric lead-paint poisoning death from eating crib paint is described
  1921 - National Lead Company admits lead is a poison
  1922 - League of Nations bans white-lead interior paint; US declines to adopt
  1943- Report concludes eating lead paint chips causes physical and neurological disorders, behavior, learning and intelligence problems in children
  1971- Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act passed
  

References

Hipkins, K. L., Materna, B. L., Payne, S. F., and Kirsch, L. C. (2004). Family lead poisoning associated with occupational exposure. Clin Pediatr (Phila) 43, 845-949.

Jacobs, D.E., Clickner, R.P., 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.

Jarosinska, D., & Rogan, W. J. (2003). Preventing lead poisoning in children: can the US experience inform other countries? The case of Poland. Cent Eur J Public Health, 11(4), 192-197.

Lanphear, B. P., Vorhees, C. V., and Bellinger, D. C. (2005). Protecting Children from Environmental Toxins. PLoS Med 2, e61.

MMWR (2001) Occupational and Take-Home Lead Poisoning Associated With Restoring Chemically Stripped Furniture - California, 1998. April 06, 2001, 50(13);246-248. Online. (accessed: 5 July 2003).

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

Rogan, W. J., & Ware, J. H. (2003a). Exposure to lead in children--how low is low enough? N Engl J Med, 348(16), 1515-1516.

Rogan, W. J., & Ware, J. H. (2003b). Intellectual impairment in children with blood lead concentrations below 10 microg per deciliter. J Pediatr, 143(5), 687-688.

Rubin C.R., 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.

Silbergeld, E.K. Lead Contamination in the district of Columbain water supply. Oversight hearing by the committee on government reform. March 5, 2004.

Weisskopf, M.G., Wright, R O., Schwartz, J., Spiro, A., 3rd, Sparrow, D., Aro, A., and Hu, H. (2004). Cumulative lead exposure and prospective change in cognition among elderly men: the VA Normative Aging Study. Am J Epidemiol 160, 1184-93.