Environmental Ecological Modeling of Human Blood Lead Levels in East Asia

Abstract

Environmental ecological modeling (EEM), which unifies models simulating transport of chemicals and exposure of humans to chemicals, was used to simulate long-term trends of female adult human blood lead levels (BLLs) and historical exposure to the atmospheric lead in four East Asian countries: Japan, Korea, China, and Vietnam. Anthropogenic lead emissions to the atmosphere in Vietnam were estimated from energy statistics to be 1931 t yr(-1). Calculated BLLs generally agreed with those observed in samples collected in these countries as the error factors were less than 2. The model results revealed that BLLs decreased significantly in Tokyo (by 58%) and Seoul (by 45%) in recent decades and confirmed the effects of efforts to reduce environmental lead in Japan and Korea. The model results also revealed that BLLs in Beijing did not decrease in this decade as much as in Tokyo and Seoul, despite the phasing out of leaded gasoline, and that the contribution from the atmospheric component was increasing (43% in 2009). Finally, we applied EEM to simulate BLLs of children in Hanoi. The probability of children having BLLs greater than 50 μg L(-1) was 7.5%, which was greater than those observed in developed countries.

Lead in the Japanese living environment

“…The mean daily lead intake level of eight children (including tap water) was reported to be 6.1 lg/day (range 2.4-13.9 lg/day), with utmost caution having been taken to prevent contamination during analysis [46]; this level is consistent with the data presented by Aung et al [56]. The large discrepancy between dietary lead intake values obtained by market basket method and those obtained by the duplicated diet method may be due to actual differences due to subject population, as shown by Niisoe et al [57], or to some technical artifact(s).…”

The effects of low-level prenatal lead exposure on birth outcomes

“…Thus, the low environmental lead level in the location might contribute to the relatively low blood levels in our study population. In addition, blood lead levels in China have been gradually decreasing (Niisoe et al, 2011). However, the blood lead levels found in our study are higher than the reference data from developed countries.…”

Prenatal exposure to lead in relation to risk of preterm low birth weight: A matched case–control study in China

“…Although Pb gasoline was banned officially in China in 2000, a significant reduction in blood Pb levels has not been observed, unlike the experience of developed countries [29, 30]. In recent decades, due to rapid economic growth in China, Pb emissions from industrial sources including mineral extraction and processing, smelting and refining, power generation, battery plants, and waste disposal have been increasing rapidly.…”