Preventing Lead Poisoning in Children

Abstract

Lead poisoning is the most significant and prevalent disease of environmental origin among US children. Despite over 100 years' knowledge of the special hazards of lead exposure for young children, it has taken over a century for effective primary prevention to be adopted. Obstacles to primary prevention have included deliberate campaigns by industry to prevent restrictions upon such uses on lead as plumbing, paints, and gasoline additives; influence of industrial support of biomedical research at major US medical schools; lack of appropriate policy mechanisms to identify and control lead exposures; and opposition to investing resources in lead poisoning prevention. The removal of lead from gasoline, which began in the United States in 1972 and was completed in 1995, has resulted in almost fourfold reductions in median blood lead levels in US children from 1976 to 1991. Increased screening and interventions to identify and abate lead sources, such as lead in housing, also contributed to this major public health success. Nevertheless, lead exposures remain prevalent, although increasingly less generally distributed. Perhaps because of the renewed "ghettoization" of lead, support for lead poisoning prevention has waned. Objections to investing public and private resources in screening and source abatement have challenged the continuing commitment of public health officials to prevention. The demonstrable success and social benefits of preventing lead toxicity are cited in support of continued preventive health policies.

Crianças Contaminadas por Chumbo: estudo comparativo sobre desempenho escolar

“…O chumbo é o metal mais abundante na crosta terrestre e sua utilização data de épocas pré-históricas (Silbergeld, 1997;Gidlow, 2004). Seus efeitos no organismo já são conhecidos praticamente desde que o homem aprendeu a trabalhar com esse metal (Hipócrates, 600 a.C., mencionou a cólica como uma conseqüência do chumbo).…”

“…É usado na construção civil, em baterias de ácido, munição, na proteção contra raio X, e é parte de ligas metálicas para a produção de soldas, fusíveis, revestimentos de cabos elétricos, materiais antifricção, metais de tipografia, etc. O chumbo tem o número atômico mais elevado entre todos os elementos estáveis (International..., 1995;Silbergeld, 1997;Mavropoulos, 1999;Gomes, 2003;Gidlow, 2004).…”

“…Com o advento da Revolução Industrial, as concentrações do metal no meio ambiente elevaram-se de forma alarmante, principalmente em razão da introdução de compostos orgânicos de chumbo em diversos materiais e equipamentos de uso contínuo (Silbergeld, 1997;Mavropoulos, 1999). Meireles (1981) afirma que esse mineral é o que mais causa intoxicações e está presente no solo, no ar e na água.…”

“…Segundo Silbergeld (1997), a primeira legislação sobre a proteção de trabalhadores expostos a chumbo foi elaborada em 1883 na Inglaterra, em virtude da morte, em 1882, de diversos empregados de empresas que utilizavam o metal em seus processos produtivos.…”

The Renal Na+-Dependent Dicarboxylate Transporter, NaDC-3, Translocates Dimethyl- and Disulfhydryl-Compounds and Contributes to Renal Heavy Metal Detoxification

“…DMSA has been successfully used in children (23,24,25) and adults (26) to increase urinary lead excretion and to deplete body lead stores. Lead intoxication is still a concern, particularly in children living in old houses contaminated with lead-based paints (27,28). Blood lead levels exceeding 10 g/dl are considered to cause irreversible health defects including mental disorders (28).…”