History of Lead Exposure in Children Revealed from Isotopic Analyses of Teeth

Abstract

A pilot study to evaluate the efficacy of using high precision lead isotopes as an indicator of previous lead exposure in children was undertaken on deciduous teeth from 10 children in a lead-mining city. The present study illustrates the applicability of the method and provides data from two subjects who had different exposure to lead during early childhood. Teeth were examined by slicing the crowns into upper and lower sections and/or by selective dissolution with different mineral acids. Different exposures to mine lead and other sources, such as food, water, air (gasoline), are readily detected in any tooth from an individual.

Identification of sources of lead in children in a primary zinc-lead smelter environment.

“…In no house was it possible to obtain all biologic and environmental samples. For example, only two blood samples were taken because, at the beginning of this study, we thought that teeth would provide a more satisfactory history of the lead exposure of the children, given the success of investigations using teeth at Broken Hill (Gulson 1996;Gulson and Wilson 1994). In other houses, most of the environmental samples were obtained except for ceiling (attic) dusts.…”

“…Environmental and blood samples were prepared following the methods described by Gulson et al (1996c). Gulson and Wilson (1994) and Gulson (1996) demonstrated the use of the lead isotope technique, combined with the well-established histology of teeth, in evaluating in utero and early childhood lead exposure from slices of deciduous teeth. In this approach, analysis of the enamel provides evidence of in utero exposure.…”

Reconstructing the life-time lead exposure in children using dentine in deciduous teeth

“…From the seminal papers of Rabinowitz et al (1991;1993) to the more recent works of Arora et al (2011; and Hare et al (2011) through the wealth of isotope studies by Gulson et al (1994;1996), Farmer et al (2006) and Robbins et al (2010), research has revealed the value of dental enamel and dentine as biological indicators of exposure. Central to many of these studies has been the aim to develop a blood lead biomarker as an alternative to blood lead measurements (BPb).…”

Reconstruction of human exposure to heavy metals using synchrotron radiation microbeams in prehistoric and modern humans

“…In the past, several methodologies have been applied to analysis of heavy metals in the teeth [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Recently, XRF analysis using synchrotron radiation (SR) microbeams (SRXRF) has been applied to the analyses of tooth enamel [10][11][12].…”