Integrating Childhood and Adult Blood Lead Surveillance to Improve Identification and Intervention Efforts

Abstract

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collects information on blood lead levels (BLLs) in the United States (U.S.) through the Childhood Blood Lead Surveillance (CBLS) system [<16 years of age] and the Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and Surveillance (ABLES) program [≥16 years of age]. While both of these state-based national programs share the mutual goal of monitoring and reducing lead exposure in the U.S. population, blood lead data for children and adults are maintained in separate data collection systems. This limits the ability to fully describe lead exposure in the U.S. population across these two distinct population groups from sources such as take-home and maternal-child lead exposure. Additionally, at the state level, having a unified system to collect, maintain, and analyze child and adult blood lead data provides a more efficient use of limited resources. Based on feedback from state partners, CDC is working to integrate CBLS and ABLES data collection systems at the national level. Several states have developed or are developing an integrated child and adult blood lead data collection system. We highlight efforts undertaken in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Carolina, Iowa, and Oregon to investigate workplace and take-home lead exposure. Integrating blood lead surveillance data at the national level will enhance CDC’s ability to monitor sources of lead exposure from both the home and work environments including paint, water, soil, dust, consumer products, and lead-related industries. Together, an integrated child and adult blood lead surveillance system will offer a coordinated, comprehensive, and systematic public health approach to the surveillance and monitoring of reported BLLs across the U.S. population.

A County-Level Program for the Evaluation of the Potential for Take-Home Lead Exposures Among Children in Michigan

“…16 Once establishments are identified and an initial survey of work practices and lead dust leaving the workplace is completed, as done here, industries, specific establishments, or even individual workers can be identified for monitoring and intervention and for blood lead testing for workers and their families. This type of initiative would align with recent calls to coordinate child and adult blood lead surveillance 33 (a suggestion made in part to help identify children whose parent’s work is an important contributor to their lead exposure) and would integrate multiple approaches for reducing take-home lead exposures, including the control of lead dust in the workplace, the adoption of work practices for reducing the amount of lead dust leaving the workplace, 34 and methods for removing lead dust from the home 35 (and vehicles). Establishments with a small number of employees who were identified in our project are unlikely to be inspected by OSHA; if inspected, the establishment may not use lead at a high enough exposure level (ie, an airborne concentration of lead of ≥30 µg/m 3 averaged during an 8-hour period) to require compliance with the OSHA lead standard.…”

Quercetin as a Dietary Supplementary Flavonoid Alleviates the Oxidative Stress Induced by Lead Toxicity in Male Wistar Rats

“…Lead is one of the highly toxicant heavy metals that are widely spread in the environment and implicated in a wide spectrum of industries [36][37][38]. By nature, lead is not vulnerable to biodegradation and is steadily accumulated, and this significantly increases the possible environmental hazards [39,40].…”

Sources, blood concentrations, and approaches for reducing exposure to lead: A critical appraisal on lead poisoning

“…The occupations and hobbies involving the highest risk include welding metal, manufacturing of battery, use of lead in firing range or instruction and bullet salvaging, smelting as well as refining lead, use of lead in construction work or painting, plumbing and fitting pipe, building ship and shipbreaking etc. Several other exposures that are less ubiquitous have been implicated in adults as well as children with the heightened concentrations of lead that, include ceramic dining ware (contaminated), spices as well as cosmetics imported, and ingestion of foreign bodies made up of lead and retained bullets that are led (Quail 2018;Egan et al 2019;Halmo and Nappe 2023).…”