Children's Blood Lead Levels in the Lead Smelting Town of Port Pirie, South Australia

Abstract

This survey included 1,239 children, representing 50% of the elementary school population of the lead smelting town of Port Pirie. Of these children, 7% had a capillary blood lead level equal to or greater than 30 micrograms/dl, which is the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council's "level of concern." There was a statistically significant difference in capillary lead levels by area of residence that was independent of age, sex, soil lead, rainwater tank lead, and school attended. A case-control study indicated that the following subset of factors was most predictive of an elevated blood lead level: household members who worked with lead in their occupations; living in a house with flaking paint on the outside walls; biting finger nails; eating lunch at home on school days; when at school, appearing to have relatively dirty clothing; when at school, appearing to have relatively dirty hands; and living on a household block with a large area of exposed dirt. A program to reduce the risk of elevated blood lead levels in Port Pirie children has been introduced.

Linkages Between Clean Technology Development and Environmental Health Outcomes in Regional Australia

“…In these towns, the smelting process has released airborne lead for decades, resulting in significant levels of soil contamination. This has consequently led to a significant increase in blood lead level, particularly in children (Boreland & Lyle 2009;Queensland Health 2008;Wilson et al, 1986).…”

“…Australian examples of industry-linked health impacts include the excessive blood lead levels identified in children and adults residing in Australian smelter towns such as Mt Isa (Queensland Health 2008), Port Pirie (Wilson et al 1986) and Broken Hill (Boreland & Lyle 202 2009). In these towns, the smelting process has released airborne lead for decades, resulting in significant levels of soil contamination.…”

Lead from mining and mineral processing activities to the community via the air-dust pathway: An example from Mount Isa city using human health risk assessment approach

“…Similar concerns of behavioural factors were identified (Wilson et al, 1986). (BHP Billiton, 2012) and was actively engaged in silver-lead-zinc mining processes for many decades.…”

“…The lead isotope ratios of haul road dust (HR), surface tailings (TD) and Urquhart Shale outcrops (NMU) were identical to other mine site samples (ATP, ATC, FMM) ( Figure 26) but there was no PbS present in HR, TD and NMU samples (Table 68, Table 73, and Table 74) as shown in Section 4.3.3. Therefore, PbS found in the Ghost wipe samples that were collected from the city residential area (Figure 73 and Table 126) was more likely to be released from lead mine site (Table 69, Table 72, and Table 75) (Rawlins et al, 2006, Carrizales et al, 2006, Douay et al, 2009), roadside dust (Benin et al, 1999), ambient air (Esterman and Maynard, 1998), snowpack (Telmer et al, 2004), and biomonitoring samples (Wilson et al, 1986, Carvalho et al, 1986, Soto-Jiménez and Flegal, 2011 when there were emission from point sources.…”

“…Lead level in airborne materials, dust fall, surface soil and rainwater tank have been assessed (Wilson et al, 1986, Body, 1986a, Body, 1986c, Body, 1986b, Alphen, 1999. Kimbrough et al,(1995) Lead exposure and absorption by children has been reviewed (Landrigan, 1983) (Table 3).…”