Lead poisoning in children is a major public health concern worldwide, especially in developing countries. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 403 children aged from 3 to 14 years living nearly zinc–lead mining areas in two provinces in Vietnam (Bac Kan and Thai Nguyen) from 06/2016 to 10/2016 to identify risk factors for lead contamination. Results. The proportion of children with
blood
lead
levels
BLLs
≥
10
μg/dL was 80.51% in Bac Kan and 50% in Thai Nguyen; the mean blood lead level for children was
14.41
±
9.42
μg/dL. In linear regression analyses, the body mass index was negatively associated with elevated BLLs with
r
=
−
0.404
,
p
<
0.05
(95% CI: -0.801, -0.006). In multivariable regression analysis, several risk factors were associated with lead contamination including male sex (
aOR
=
2.44
, 95% CI: 1.13-5.24,
p
=
0.02
), play areas in Bac Kan (
aOR
=
2.3
(1.02-5.17),
p
=
0.04
), proximity of children’s home of less than 2 kilometers from the mine (
aOR
=
2.90
(1.54-5.44),
p
=
0.001
), and inattentive symptoms in Thai Nguyen (
aOR
=
7.85
, 95% CI 3.49-17.69,
p
=
0.001
). Environmental factors, including lead concentrations in the soil and ambient air samples in both locations, are many times higher than Vietnamese standards.