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Background: Widespread use of lead has caused extensive environmental contamination and health problems in many parts of the world. Children are particularly vulnerable and even relatively low levels of exposure can cause serious health conditions. Our objective was to determine the prevalence of blood lead level in children in industrial city of Nepal, Birgunj.Materials and Methods: The cross sectional study was done on 50 school going student in Birgunj city, Nepal from November 2016 to January 2017. Questionnaire was used to collect data. Capillary blood was drawn and Blood Lead Level was measured immediately. SPSS ver. 22 was used to analyze the data.Results: The mean age of children in study was 12.5 ± 1.11 years.Among 50 children, 54% were male and 46% were female. The mean blood lead level was 20.33±9.36 μg/dl (male 21.08±8.87μg/dl, female 19.46±10.92 μg/dl). All the children in the study have elevated blood lead level and 84% of them have >10 μg/dl. About 26% of children have blood lead level between 15-20 μg/dl, 12% have level 20-25 μg/dl and 4% of them have more than 35 μg/dl.Conclusion: The prevalence of blood lead level in children from the industrial city of Nepal is alarmingly high. Children exposed with chipped paints have high level of blood lead level. However, further study in large population is required to address the current situation regarding the lead exposure to children.

A cross-sectional study of 212 adult (>18 years) male slum dwellers (mean age=34.6+/-14.4 years) of Midnapore town, West Bengal, India, was undertaken to study the inter-relationships of chronic energy deficiency (CED), monthly family income (MFI), self-reported morbidity and hospitalization due to severe illness. The mean height, weight and body mass index (BMI) of the subjects were 160.0 cm, 50.8 kg and 19.9 kg/m2, respectively. The overall frequencies of CED (BMI<18.5 kg/m2), morbidity and hospitalization were 38.2%, 34.4% and 13.7%, respectively. Based on the WHO classification, the prevalence of CED among this population was high (20-39%), indicating a serious situation. Overall, MFI was significantly (p<0.01) positively correlated with BMI (r=0.21). Linear regression analyses showed that MFI had a significant impact (t=3.08; p<0.002) on BMI. Overall, MFI explained 3.9% variation in BMI. Subjects belonging to the lowest family income group (FIG I) had the lowest mean BMI (19.1 kg/m2) and the highest rate of CED (46.3%) and morbidity (36.6%). Those in the highest family income group (FIG III) had the largest mean BMI (20.8 kg/m2) and lowest rate of CED (30.2%) and morbidity (30.2%). The highest rate (18.9%) of hospitalization was found in this group. There were significant family income group differences in mean BMI (F=3.134, p<0.05). The frequency of morbidity (24.6%) and hospitalization (11.9%) was lowest among normal BMI individuals. Morbidity was significantly higher (chi2=11.92, p=0.0026) among CED (48.2%) subjects compared with normal BMI individuals (OR=2.85; CI=1.49-5.46). Similarly, compared with normal BMI subjects, morbidity was higher (38.5%; OR=1.92; 95% CI=0.50-7.18) among overweight subjects. Hospitalization was more common among CED subjects (16.1%; OR=1.42; CI=0.58-3.45) compared with normal BMI subjects. Similarly, the frequency of hospitalization was more among overweight individuals (15.4%; OR=1.35; 95% CI=0.0-7.59). In conclusion, this study provides evidence that the frequency of CED among this population is high, indicating a serious situation. Moreover there exists strong inter-relationships between BMI, CED, MFI and morbidity.