• MMWR supplements · Aug 2012

    Review Historical Article

    Lead in drinking water and human blood lead levels in the United States.

    • Mary Jean Brown and Stephen Margolis.
    • Division of Emergency and Environmental Health Services, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway NE, Atlanta, GA 30084, USA. mjb5@cdc.gov
    • MMWR Suppl. 2012 Aug 10; 61 (4): 1-9.

    AbstractLead is a pervasive environmental contaminant. The adverse health effects of lead exposure in children and adults are well documented, and no safe blood lead threshold in children has been identified. Lead can be ingested from various sources, including lead paint and house dust contaminated by lead paint, as well as soil, drinking water, and food. The concentration of lead, total amount of lead consumed, and duration of lead exposure influence the severity of health effects. Because lead accumulates in the body, all sources of lead should be controlled or eliminated to prevent childhood lead poisoning. Beginning in the 1970s, lead concentrations in air, tap water, food, dust, and soil began to be substantially reduced, resulting in significantly reduced blood lead levels (BLLs) in children throughout the United States. However, children are still being exposed to lead, and many of these children live in housing built before the 1978 ban on lead-based residential paint. These homes might contain lead paint hazards, as well as drinking water service lines made from lead, lead solder, or plumbing materials that contain lead. Adequate corrosion control reduces the leaching of lead plumbing components or solder into drinking water. The majority of public water utilities are in compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) of 1991. However, some children are still exposed to lead in drinking water. EPA is reviewing LCR, and additional changes to the rule are expected that will further protect public health. Childhood lead poisoning prevention programs should be made aware of the results of local public water system lead monitoring measurement under LCR and consider drinking water as a potential cause of increased BLLs, especially when other sources of lead exposure are not identified.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…