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Blood Lead Levels In Victorian Children
Author(s) -
De Silva P. E.,
Donnan M. B.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1980.tb77006.x
Subject(s) - lead (geology) , blood lead level , lead exposure , venous blood , medicine , lead poisoning , physiology , pediatrics , biology , psychiatry , cats , paleontology
A recent study of lead levels in the blood of Sydney schoolchildren purported to show “an alarming situation of epidemic proportions”, with up to 24% of children in one survey having blood lead levels greater than 25 μg/100 mL (1.21 μmol/L). In the present study, 446 Victorian children were tested for lead level in venous blood, showing a mean blood lead level of 11.4 μg/ 100 mL (0.55 μmol/L), and only six children (1.3%) with blood lead levels in excess of 25 μg/100 mL (1.21 μmol/L) were found. It is suggested that the blood lead levels in the Sydney study may have been falsely high because of the use of capillary blood samples which are prone to contamination.