The Port Pirie Cohort Study: Blood lead concentrations in early childhood

Abstract

A cohort of over 600 children who were born between 1979 and 1982 and accounted for the great majority of all births in Port Pirie, South Australia, and its immediate environs, underwent capillary blood sampling at the ages of 6 months, 15 months, 2 years, and annually thereafter. The mean blood lead concentration (Pb‐B) initially rose markedly, peaked at 2 years of age, and subsequently declined gradually at 3 and 4 years of age. No differences in Pb‐B were observed between girls and boys. Secular trends in Pb‐B at the age of 2 years that were observed in blood samples taken over the 1981‐1984 period suggest that both the drought of 1982 and changes in community behaviour may have accounted for some of the age‐related variation. The Pb‐B was associated positively with surface soil lead concentrations, with a two‐fold variation in mean Pb‐B between residential zones within Port Pirie. Pb‐B was higher in summer than in winter months at the ages of 6 and 15 months, but not at older ages. These findings suggest that lead in dust influences strongly blood lead concentrations in early childhood.

Moderate Lead Poisoning: Trends in Blood Lead Levels in Unchelated Children

“…The average age at enrollment of our population was 31.5 months; thus, a decline based on the aging of our group was to be expected. However, the magnitude of the decline between 2 and 3 years of age reported in several longitudinal studies is considerably less (7%) than in ours (27%) (16,18).…”

Evaluation of the lead Decontamination programme in the leading smelting town of port Pirie (South Australia)

“…At ages 6, 15 and 24 months, the numbers of children remaining in the cohort study were 652, 619 and 601 respectively (McMichael et al 1985). At four years of age, there were 548 children remaining in the study, 397 living in Port Pirie and 151 from the surrounding area (McMichael et al 1988).…”

“…Capillary blood samples were taken from both EHC and Cohort Study children in accordance with the Australian standard 2636-1983 "Sampling of Venous and Capillary Blood for the Determination of Lead Content" (McMichael et al 1985, Wilson et al 1986. EHC blood samples were analysed by the laboratories at the BHAS smelter in Port Pirie.…”

“…A cohort of 745 children, representing approximately 90% of all children born between September 1979 and September 1982, were followed to age 7 years. Capillary blood samples were collected at the ages of 6, 15 and 24 months and annually thereafter (McMichael et al 1985).…”

Soil pollution in day-care centers and playgrounds in Norway: national action plan for mapping and remediation

“…Several studies have shown that contaminated soil is an important pathway of children's exposure to toxic elements and compounds (Calabrese et al 1989;Mielke and Reagan 1998). There is substantial evidence that a high Pb level in soil affects blood Pb level, which affects intelligence, and behavior (McMichael et al 1985;Bellinger et al 1990;Dietrich et al 1990;Mielke et al 2005;Mielke et al 2007).…”