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Human exposure to lead and new evidence of adverse health effects: Implications for analytical measurements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2012

Patrick J. Parsons  and
Kathryn G. McIntosh
Patrick J. Parsons*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry, Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Albany, New York Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, Albany, New York
Kathryn G. McIntosh
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, Albany, New York
*
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: pparsons@wadsworth.org
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Abstract

Lead poisoning is a preventable condition caused by exposure to environmental sources such as lead-containing dust or lead-painted consumer products. The history of lead poisoning prevention has been defined to some extent by the quality of the analytical methods available for lead measurements whether in environmental samples or biological tissues and fluids. The quality of blood lead methods has improved so greatly over the last three decades that we now know far more about the adverse health effects from low-level exposures. Recent evidence suggests that effects such as deficit in IQ occur below the current (periodically revised) U.S. CDC threshold of 10 μg/dL, such that no safe threshold appears to exist for children. Improvements in analytical techniques have also had an impact on the environmental measurement quality, yet many environmental thresholds have remained unchanged for decades. In light of our current understanding of the adverse health effects at low levels of exposure, new thresholds for lead in children’s products have been introduced by the U.S. CPSC. The adequacy of current analytical techniques to detect lead accurately at the new, lower thresholds is questionable. XRF offers the advantage of being rapid and nondestructive compared to techniques such as AAS that require extensive sample preparation. However, the accuracy of handheld XRF determinations of lead in painted toys is generally limited. A brief comparative study on the performance of several analytical techniques for the determination of lead in toys is presented at the end of this paper.

Keywords

lead poisoningenvironmental contaminantblood lead levelIQXRF
Type
Technical Articles
Information
Powder Diffraction , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , June 2010 , pp. 175 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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