Blood lead
µg/dL
Childhood blood lead, measured in µg/dL. Paint, dust, water, and gasoline are how it gets in; the reading is the blood number.
The papers draw venous or capillary blood and report lead in micrograms per deciliter. Peak, lifetime average, and concurrent draws are different clocks on the same burden. Paint, pipes, and leaded gasoline are sources. The variable is the blood number.
Also called lead exposure, blood lead, PbB, childhood lead, environmental lead.
Connected relationships
SMOKE− DECREASES
Observational · Low
Blood lead→Cognitive performance
Higher Blood lead decreases Cognitive performance.
Higher childhood blood lead tracked lower IQ in Rochester, the Lanphear pool, and Dunedin at age 38 after maternal IQ was in the model. Nobody randomized lead.
Sources
- RL Canfield et al. (2003). Intellectual impairment in children with blood lead concentrations below 10 microg per deciliter.
- BP Lanphear et al. (2005). Low-level environmental lead exposure and children's intellectual function: an international pooled analysis.
- TA Jusko et al. (2008). Blood lead concentrations < 10 microg/dL and child intelligence at 6 years of age.
- A Reuben et al. (2021). Association of Childhood Lead Exposure With MRI Measurements of Structural Brain Integrity in Midlife.
- A Reuben et al. (2017). Association of Childhood Blood Lead Levels With Cognitive Function and Socioeconomic Status at Age 38 Years and With IQ Change and Socioeconomic Mobility Between Childhood and Adulthood.
- CM Taylor et al. (2018). Effects of low-level prenatal lead exposure on child IQ at 4 and 8 years in a UK birth cohort study.