A Temporal Association between Accumulated Petrol (Gasoline) Lead Emissions and Motor Neuron Disease in Australia

Abstract

Background: The age standardised death rate from motor neuron disease (MND) has increased from 1.29 to 2.74 per 100,000, an increase of 112.4% between 1959 and 2013. It is clear that genetics could not have played a causal role in the increased rate of MND deaths over such a short time span. We postulate that environmental factors are responsible for this rate increase. We focus on lead additives in Australian petrol as a possible contributing environmental factor. Methods: The associations between historical petrol lead emissions and MND death trends in Australia between 1962 and 2013 were examined using linear regressions. Results: Regression results indicate best fit correlations between a 20 year lag of petrol lead emissions and age-standardised female death rate (R2 = 0.86, p = 4.88 × 10−23), male age standardised death rate (R2 = 0.86, p = 9.4 × 10−23) and percent all cause death attributed to MND (R2 = 0.98, p = 2.6 × 10−44). Conclusion: Legacy petrol lead emissions are associated with increased MND death trends in Australia. Further examination of the 20 year lag between exposure to petrol lead and the onset of MND is warranted.

Case studies and evidence-based approaches to addressing urban soil lead contamination

“…Recently, progress has been made in understanding numerous chronic health effects associated with Pb exposure. For example, there are strong associations between Pb and a multitude of diseases such as motor neuron disease (Laidlaw et al, 2015;Santurtún et al, 2016), autism (Rossignol et al, 2014;Gorini et al, 2014;Mostafa et al, 2016;Kim et al, 2016) preeclampsia (Kennedy et al, 2012) developmental delays in children (Earl et al, 2015), heart disease (Navas-Acien et al, 2007), ADHD (Goodlad et al, 2013), dementia (Genuis and Kelln, 2015), mental illness (Tom as et al, 2012) and brain cancer (Wu et al, 2012). Indeed, even as more exposure-disease relationships are uncovered, there are new findings which point to yet another outcome previously unrecognized and missed (Bellinger, 2011).…”

Use of a Survey to Assess the Environmental Exposure and Family Perception to Lead in Children (<6 Years) in Four Valley Cities, Northwestern China

“…The many ways lead is used results in a variety of potential exposure sources and pathways and therefore, it is a multi-media pollutant [ 8 ]. The major source of lead in the body is atmospheric (dust) [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ], polluted soil [ 14 , 15 , 16 ], contaminated water [ 15 , 17 , 18 ], food [ 19 ], and general urban conditions [ 20 ]. Given the differences between environment of individuals at work and at home, lifestyle and socioeconomic status, the specific sources of lead exposure vary widely.…”

Editorial: Lead Risk Assessment and Health Effects

“…The theme of lead risk assessment and health effects was explored and interpreted by the authors of 19 manuscripts. The papers reflect the international scope of lead research conducted in Australia [ 2 , 3 ], Benin Sub-Saharan West Africa [ 4 ], Brazil [ 5 ], China including Taiwan [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ], France [ 13 ], Mongolia [ 14 ] Singapore [ 15 ], South Africa [ 16 , 17 ], The Netherlands [ 18 ], and the USA [ 19 , 20 ]. The authors submitted articles on a wide range of lead risk assessment topics.…”

“…One article is on the risk assessment of fluorides [ 11 ] included because of the negative impact that fluorides have on calcium metabolism which plays a role in the biochemistry of lead. The articles go beyond lead-based paints and include topics about the entire set of environmental components, water [ 15 , 19 ], air (dust) [ 2 , 3 , 6 , 12 , 14 ], and soil [ 6 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. There are articles covering spatial and temporal relationships between lead-containing products and delayed health impacts such as motor neuron diseases [ 3 ].…”

“…The articles go beyond lead-based paints and include topics about the entire set of environmental components, water [ 15 , 19 ], air (dust) [ 2 , 3 , 6 , 12 , 14 ], and soil [ 6 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. There are articles covering spatial and temporal relationships between lead-containing products and delayed health impacts such as motor neuron diseases [ 3 ]. The scope of lead effects includes: the association between women and infant exposure including breast milk [ 4 , 16 ]; lead worker exposure [ 5 , 7 ]; seasonality of exposure risk [ 4 , 19 ]; meta-analysis as a tool for data treatment [ 8 ]; and the mapping of community soil lead [ 18 , 20 ].…”