General Interest
9/18/2009 11:59:36 PM EST
So-called safe lead levels have adverse impacts on children, notes new study from University of Bristol
Partner, Ropers Majeski Kohn & Bentley
Researchers from the University of Bristol Centre for Child and Adolescent Health set out to see if there was any effect on the behavior and intellectual development of children who had ingested just below the so-called safe level of 10 micrograms per deciliter (or tenth of a liter) of blood.
The Bristol researchers took blood samples from 582 children at the age of 30 months. They found 27% of the children had lead levels above five micrograms per deciliter.
They followed the children's progress at regular intervals and then assessed their academic performance and behavioral patterns when they were seven to eight years old. After taking account of factors likely to influence the results, they found that blood lead levels at 30 months showed significant associations with educational achievement, antisocial behavior, and hyperactivity scores five years later. With lead levels up to five micrograms per deciliter, there was no obvious effect. But lead levels between five and 10 micrograms per deciliter were associated with significantly poorer scores for reading (49% lower) and writing (51% lower). A doubling in lead blood levels to 10 micrograms per deciliter was associated with a drop of a third of a grade in their Scholastic Assessment Tests (SAT's). And above 10 micrograms per deciliter children were almost three times as likely to display antisocial behavior patterns and be hyperactive than the children with the lower levels of lead in their blood.
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