The Effect of Leaded Aviation Gasoline on Blood Lead in Children

Zahran, Sammy; Iverson, Terrence; McElmurry, Shawn P.; Weiler, Stephan

doi:10.1086/691686

Cited by 40 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Appendix Table 3. Results are consistent with past literature predicting children's lead exposure patterns (Miranda, Anthopolos, and Hastings 2011;Schwartz et al 2017;Zahran et al 2017;Wheeler et al 2019 The triple difference estimates of the net benefits of cleanup are slightly lower but generally similar to the estimates from the DiD model. The biggest difference between the two sets of estimates is the timing of the effect.…”

Section: Estimates In Columnssupporting

confidence: 89%

“…4 We constructed the key explanatory variables by determining the distance from each child's home address to each Superfund site boundary and identifying at what cleanup stage the child's blood lead test occurred. 5 The use of individual home addresses increases the precision of our distance measure compared to studies that used Census tract or zip code centroid to measure distance to environmental hazards (e.g., Persico et al 2016;Zahran et al 2017). Polygons representing approximate Superfund site boundaries were used for the location of the sites in the six study states, as well as sites in Illinois and Iowa that are located within 5 km of the study states.…”

Section: Figure 1: Study Area and Time Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Superfund cleanups and children’s lead exposure

Klemick

Mason

Sullivan

2020

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management

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This study evaluates the effect of EPA's Superfund cleanup program on children's lead exposure. We linked two decades of blood lead level (BLL) measurements from children in six states with data on Superfund sites and other lead risk factors. We used quasi-experimental methods to identify the causal effect of proximity to Superfund cleanups on rates of elevated BLL. We estimated a difference-in-difference model comparing the change in elevated BLL of children closer to versus farther from lead-contaminated sites before, during, and after cleanup.We also estimated a triple difference model including children near hazardous sites with minimal to no lead contamination as a comparison group. We used spatial fixed effects and matching to minimize potential bias from unobserved differences between the treatment and comparison groups. Results indicate that Superfund cleanups lowered the risk of elevated BLL for children living within 2 kilometers of lead-contaminated sites 8 to 18 percent.

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Section: Estimates In Columnssupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Figure 1: Study Area and Time Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Superfund cleanups and children’s lead exposure

Klemick

Mason

Sullivan

2020

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management

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“…Such consideration is not meant to diminish the public health tragedies visited upon the citizens of Flint, but to bring attention to other sources that produce analogous BLL effects in children. Other major sources of child exposure to lead include lead paint (Sayre et al, 1974), contaminated soil (Zahran et al, 2013), and air emissions from piston engine aircraft (Zahran et al, 2017). In various cities of the United States, researchers have observed a striking seasonal behavior to child BLLs (Greene and Morris, 2006; Laidlaw et al, 2005; Melaku et al, 2008; Paode et al, 1998; US EPA, 1995; Zahran et al, 2013).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In effect, a FWC (in terms of BLLs) occurs every year in an untold number of American cities. Candidate mechanisms behind this seasonal flux include home renovations and demolitions involving the release of lead-based paint on interior and exterior walls (Rabito et al, 2007), the atmospheric resuspension of contaminated soils (Zahran et al, 2013), and the deposition of leaded gasoline from piston-engine aircraft (Zahran et al, In Press). Given that both the EPA and the CDC have concluded that there is no known safe level of lead exposure (CDC, 2012a; CDC, 2012b; DHHS, 2012), much prevention science and health policy research remains on all contemporary sources of child lead exposure.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The MDCH data also contain information on the census block group residential location of each child, the precise date of blood sample collection, child date of birth (allowing one to derive child age at the moment of sample), child sex (male = 1, female = 0), and the method of blood draw (1= cutaneous; 0= venous). As with previous research (Zahran et al, In Press; Zahran et al, 2011), we analyze child BLL as a continuous variable (in μg/dL) and then as a binary variable of ≥ 5 μg/dL = 1, < 5 μg/dL = 0, corresponding to the CDCs present reference level of elevated blood lead.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Four phases of the Flint Water Crisis: Evidence from blood lead levels in children

Zahran

McElmurry

Sadler

2017

Environmental Research

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The Flint Water Crisis (FWC) is divisible into four phases of child water-lead exposure risk: Phase A) before the switch in water source to the Flint River (our baseline); Phase B) after the switch in water source, but before boil water advisories; Phase C) after boil water advisories, but before the switch back to the baseline water source of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD); and Phase D) after the switch back to DWSD. The objective of this work is to estimate water-lead attributable movements in child blood lead levels (BLLs) that correspond with the four phases in the FWC. With over 21,000 geo-referenced and time-stamped blood lead samples from children in Genesee County drawn from January 01, 2013 to July 19, 2016, we develop a series of quasi-experimental models to identify the causal effect of water-lead exposure on child BLLs in Flint. We find that the switch in water source (transitioning from phase A to B) caused mean BLLs to increase by about 0.5 μg/dL, and increased the likelihood of a child presenting with a BLL ≥ 5 μg/dL by a factor of 1.91 to 3.50, implying an additional 561 children exceeding 5 μg/dL. We conservatively estimate cohort social costs (through lost earnings alone) of this increase in water-lead exposed children at $65 million, contrasted with expected annual savings of $2 million from switching water source. On the switch from Phase B to C, we find BLLs decreased about 50% from their initial rise following boil water advisories and subsequent water avoidance behaviors by households. Finally, the return to the baseline source water (Phase D) returned child BLLs to pre-FWC levels further implicating water-lead exposure as a causal source of child BLLs throughout the FWC.

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