Concentrations of lead in blood, hair and saliva of German children living in three different areas of traffic density

Lead (Pb) is a toxic heavy metal that is widely distributed throughout the environment. Pb is an important neurotoxic metal and children are more susceptible to its effect due to their higher absorption rate and greater susceptibility of the developing nervous system. In this work, we evaluated the lead exposure levels in children living near a metallurgical plant and identified risk factors associated with its internal dose. All children, aged 1-10 years and 11 months, living near a metallurgical plant in the great Salvador area, Brazil were evaluated in this cross-sectional study and compared with children from a non exposed area. Occipital hair and blood were used to assess exposure. Air lead levels in the respirable fraction (PM 2.5 ) were also measured in both areas. Blood lead levels (BLL), hair lead levels (PbH) and air lead were determined by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Spearman correlations analysis was used to evaluate correlations between BLL, PbH and descriptors. Significant risk factors were modeled using multivariate linear regression analysis. Air lead levels were approximately tenfolds lower than EPA reference concentration (0.15 μg/m 3 ). Median BLL and PbH were1.65 ± 1.45 μg/dL and 1.26 ± 3.70 μg/g, respectively, in exposed children. In the referents, medians were BLL 1.20 ± 1.20 μg/dL; PbH 2.09 ± 2.06 μg/g. No significant difference was observed in biomarkers levels between boys and girls. It was observed a positive weak correlation (Spearman rho = 0.197, p = 0.033) between BLL and PbH. Our data show that children's lead body burden measured as BLL or PbH are low when compared with the recommended reference values. Despite that, we were able to identify four risk factors associated with increased biological lead levels: age, living near industrial site, environmental tobacco smoking and, above all, domestic waste burning. In order to prevent such avoidable exposure, environmental education and proper waste management should be implemented, especially in developing countries.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Determinants of lead exposure in children on the outskirts of Salvador, Brazil

Menezes-Filho

Viana

Paes

2011

“…Atmospheric exposures originating from specific locations and dietary habits are therefore, responsible for variations in the levels of trace metals in hair (Ashraf et al, 1994;Wilhelm et al, 2002;Khalique et al, 2005). Thus, hair metal analysis becomes important to study the dependence of metal levels on such variates, and that too on a comparative basis so that the contributions from different geographic locations and relevant sources could be correlated (Ashraf et al, 1995b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Metal Distribution in Hair of Pakistani and Libyan Population and Source Identification by Multivariate Analysis

Shah

Shaheen

Khalique

et al. 2006

Using nitric acid-perchloric acid wet digestion based FAAS method ten selected metals (Cd, Co, Cr, Fe, K, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb and Zn) were determined in the scalp hair of male Pakistani and Libyan donors (n = 62), between 3-54 years age and residing in typical urban areas. The study was taken up to identify sources of metal distribution in two diverse population segments exposed to different environments. Sodium emerged with the highest mean hair concentration of 511.0 microg/g and 496.9 mug/g for Libyan and Pakistani donors respectively, followed by K, at 266.2 microg/g and 242.4 microg/g for the two donor categories. Cadmium showed the lowest mean hair concentration for both Pakistani (0.380 microg/g) and Libyan (0.530 microg/g) donors. Levels of Na, K, Pb, Cr and Cd were higher in hair of Libyan donors compared with Pakistani counterparts which showed higher comparative levels of Zn, Fe, Co, Ni and Mn. Strong metal-to-metal correlations were found between Na-K (r = 0.638) and Cd-Co (r = 0.574) for Pakistani donors, while for Libyan donors, Na-K (r = 0.680) and Fe-Mn (r = 0.624) correlations emerged as strongly significant. Only K was found to have a strong positive correlation (r = 0.611) with age for Pakistani donors while this correlation was significantly negative (r = -0.500) for Libyan donors, probably arising from individual food habits. Other metals showed no viable relationship with age. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA) of the data evidenced food, industrial emissions and automobile emissions as possible sources of metal distribution. The results of the present study are compared with those reported for subjects from other regions of the world.

“…Dietary habits and environmental exposure may also be responsible for variations in the hair trace metal levels for male and female donors from specific geographical locations (Wilhelm et al, 2002;Ashraf et al, 1995b). The present study was conducted to assess the levels of ten selected metals (Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Cd, Co, Cr and Ni) in the scalp hair of a segment of population of district Chakwal, Pakistan, which represents a typical rural population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparative Study Based on Gender and Age Dependence of Selected Metals in Scalp Hair

Khalique

Ahmad

Anjum

et al. 2005

Levels of 10 metals (Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, Cd, Co, Cr and Ni) in the scalp hair of male and female donors, with age groups between 3 and 100 years, were determined by ICP-AES. In total, 58 male and 30 female hair samples were analyzed in triplicate. The donors belonged to the rural area of district Chakwal, a well-known typical non-urban site in Pakistan. Calcium showed the highest concentration of 462 microg/g in the hair of males and 870 microg/g in those of females followed by Zn, at 208 and 251 microg/g for the two sexes. For male donors, Cd showed the lowest concentration (1.15 microg/g) while for female donors Co remained at minimum level (0.92 microg/g). The order of decreasing metal concentration in the hair of male donors was: Ca > Zn > Mg > Fe > Cu > Mn > Ni > Cr > Co > Cd while that for female donors it was: Ca > Zn > Mg > Fe > Cu > Mn > Cr > Ni > Cd > Co. The female group exhibited enhanced levels of all selected metals except Fe and Co in their hair as compared with the male counterparts. A strong bivariate positive correlation was found between Fe and Zn (r = 0.841) for the hair samples from male category while for the female category, strong positive correlations were observed between Ca-Mg (r = 0.617), Ca-Zn (r = 0.569), Ca-Mn (r = 0.565), Mg-Mn (r = 0.655), Cr-Cu (r = 0.655) and Cr-Ni (r = 0.685). The distribution of metals in the hair of donors with respect to different age groups was also investigated for both genders. The study showed that in case of males, the concentration of all selected metals decreased with increasing age except for Cu, Co and Cr. However, for females the hair metal levels increased with age, except for Co for which the concentration decreased with age. No appreciable change in the metal concentration was observed as a function of age for the combined sexes.