JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and Brogan & Partners are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Environmental Health Perspectives. This study evaluates associations between soil lead concentrations (SPb), age of housing, and blood lead levels (BPb) of children in metropolitan New Orleans and Lafourche Parish, Louisiana. The database includes over 2,600 SPb and 6,000 BPb samples paired by their median values and pre-1940 housing percentages for 172 census tracts. Associations were evaluated with Fisher's exact test and Spearman's rho test and modeled with the least sum of absolute deviations regression. Census tracts with low SPb are associated with new housing, but census tracts with high SPb are evenly split between old and new housing [Fisher's exact test, p = 8.60 x 10-13 for the percentage of housing built before 1940 (percent pre-1940 housing) versus SPb]. The p-value for SPb versus BPb is 12 orders of magnitude stronger than the p-value for percent pre-1940 housing versus BPb. Census tracts with low BPb are associated with new housing, but census tracts with high BPb are split evenly between old and new housing (Fisher's exact test, p = 1.67 x 10-12 for percent pre-1940 housing versus BPb). Census tracts with high SPb are associated with high BPb and census tracts with low SPb are associated with low BPb (Fisher's exact test, p = 3.18 x 10-24 for BPb versus SPb). The Spearman's rho test of the association of SPb and BPb in Orleans and Lafourche Parishes yielded a pvalue of 6.12 x 10-24. The least sum of absolute deviations regression model of the data is BPb = 1.845 + 0.7215 (SPb)0'4. A comparison of the modeled BPb versus observed BPb has an t2 of 0.552 and a p-value of 2.83x 10-23 that this relation was due to chance. If blood lead in children is more closely associated to soil lead than to the age of housing, then primary lead prevention should also include soil lead. Key words: age of housing, blood lead, childhood lead exposure, lead-based paint, leaded gasoline, soil lead, urban-rural blood lead and soil lead differences. Environ Health Perspectives 105:950-954 (1997).

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