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Importance: Many children in the United States and around the world are exposed to lead, a developmental neurotoxin. The long-term cognitive and socioeconomic consequences of lead exposure are uncertain.Objective: To test the hypothesis that childhood lead exposure is associated with cognitive function and socioeconomic status in adulthood and with changes in IQ and socioeconomic mobility between childhood and midlife.Design, Setting, and Participants: A prospective cohort study based on a population-representative 1972-1973 birth cohort from New Zealand; the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study observed participants to age 38 years (until December 2012).Exposures: Childhood lead exposure ascertained as blood lead levels measured at age 11 years. High blood lead levels were observed among children from all socioeconomic status levels in this cohort.Main Outcomes and Measures: The IQ (primary outcome) and indexes of Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory, and Processing Speed (secondary outcomes) were assessed at age 38 years using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV; IQ range, 40-160). Socioeconomic status (primary outcome) was assessed at age 38 years using the New Zealand Socioeconomic Index-2006 (NZSEI-06; range, 10 [lowest]-90 [highest]).Results: Of 1037 original participants, 1007 were alive at age 38 years, of whom 565 (56%) had been lead tested at age 11 years (54% male; 93% white). Mean (SD) blood lead level at age 11 years was 10.99 (4.63) µg/dL. Among blood-tested participants included at age 38 years, mean WAIS-IV score was 101.16 (14.82) and mean NZSEI-06 score was 49.75 (17.12). After adjusting for maternal IQ, childhood IQ, and childhood socioeconomic status, each 5-µg/dL higher level of blood lead in childhood was associated with a 1.61-point lower score (95% CI, -2.48 to -0.74) in adult IQ, a 2.07-point lower score (95% CI, -3.14 to -1.01) in perceptual reasoning, and a 1.26-point lower score (95% CI, -2.38 to -0.14) in working memory. Associations of childhood blood lead level with deficits in verbal comprehension and processing speed were not statistically significant. After adjusting for confounders, each 5-µg/dL higher level of blood lead in childhood was associated with a 1.79-unit lower score (95% CI, -3.17 to -0.40) in socioeconomic status. An association between greater blood lead levels and a decline in IQ and socioeconomic status from childhood to adulthood was observed with 40% of the association with downward mobility mediated by cognitive decline from childhood.Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort born in New Zealand in 1972-1973, childhood lead exposure was associated with lower cognitive function and socioeconomic status at age 38 years and with declines in IQ and with downward social mobility. Childhood lead exposure may have long-term ramifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study to determine the lead content of calcium supplements and to quantify the lead exposure from popular brands of calcium in dosages used for childhood recommended daily allowance, osteoporosis, and phosphate binding in dialysis patients. Design; Results; Conclusion that many calcium supplement formulations contain lead and may pose a public health concern.

Context: Many studies have found a significant inverse association between early exposure to environmental lead and cognitive function in childhood. Whether these effects are reversible when exposure is reduced is not clear.Objective: To assess the reversibility of the apparent effects of lead on cognitive abilities in early childhood by testing whether declines in blood lead concentrations beyond the age of 2 years are associated with improvements in cognition.Setting: Urban and rural communities surrounding a large lead smelter in Port Pirie, South Australia.Participants: A total of 375 children followed up from birth to the age of 11 to 13 years.Design: Long-term prospective cohort study.Main Outcome Measures: The Bayley Mental Development Index at age 2 years, the McCarthy General Cognitive Index at age 4 years, and IQs from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale (revised version) at ages 7 and 11 to 13 years.Results: Mean blood lead concentrations in the children decreased from 1.02 pmol/L (21 .2 microg/dL) at age 2 years to 0.38 micromol/L (7.9 microg/dL) at age 1 1 to 13 years, but cognitive scores in children whose blood lead concentration declined most were generally not improved relative to the scores of children whose blood lead levels declined least. Changes in IQ and declines in blood lead levels that occurred between the ages of 7 and 11 to 13 years (r= 0.12, P= .09) suggested slightly better cognition among children whose blood lead levels declined most.Conclusion: The cognitive deficits associated with exposure to environmental lead in early childhood appear to be only partially reversed by a subsequent decline in blood lead level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the prevention of childhood lead poisoning. Report that household paint has been the primary exposure to lead in childhood; Claim that lead paint was not outlawed in the U.S. until 1978, despite warning of its toxicity since 1904; Signs and symptoms of lead poisoning, including abdominal colic, anemia, and encephalopathy; Significance of lead poisoning to public health in the U.S.; Details of long-term physiological effects of lead poisoning; Criticism for the administration of lead poisoning screening and treatment; Importance of preventing lead poisoning from residential hazards.

The article examines the lead poisoning of a 9-month-old baby in Manchester, Connecticut, who was poisoned after chewing on a homeopathic "healing bracelet" that contained lead spacer beads.

The article describes the case of a one-year-old boy showed elevated levels of lead in his blood. A risk assessor was used to evaluate the child's home and routine activities. A telephone interview with the boy's father uncovered that the boy had worn a Cambodian amulet around his neck since age three months. It notes that the boy's blood lead level (BLL) has declined following the removal of the amulet from the home. It points out that the amulet was the most likely source of the child's overall lead burden. INSET: What is already known on this topic?.

Reports on fatal pediatric lead poisoning in the United States. View that lead poisoning is rare because of public health measures which have reduced blood lead levels (BLL) in the population; Description of the investigation of the first reported death of a child from lead poisoning since 1990; Editorial note from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Deals with the initiative of the U.S. government to prevent childhood lead poisoning. Information on lead; Efforts of the Food and Drug Administration to prepare regulations to eliminate the remaining uses; Expectation on the Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention to call for a lowering of the definition of lead poisoning from a blood lead level.

Summarizes a case of poisoning associated with ingestion of lead-based paint in a 28-month old boy in Wisconsin. Medical history of the patient; Diagnosis and treatment; Information on lead encephalopathy.

Describes a survey of environmental epidemiologists in the United States in 1997. Importance of monitoring nonoccupational sentinel environmental diseases; Sponsors of the survey; Nature of the questionnaire used; Study of environmental disease surveillance systems; Statistics about responses; Comparison of lead and nonlead exposure surveillance systems; Limitations of the study; Childhood lead poisoning.

Discusses the Salt Lake City-County Health Department free blood lead screening to all children aged 12-36 months. Report from seven Special Supplement Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children clinics on blood lead levels; Prevalence survey; Design and promotion of screening recommendations; Target screening results.

Looks at a report by the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) which assessed lead exposure among children resulting from home renovation and remodeling during 1993-1994. The effect of renovation and remodeling activities that disturb lead-based paint; Statistics on the number of children in households with elevated blood lead levels (BLL) considered to be attributable to renovation and remodeling; Reporting of more than one type of paint removal activity.

Presents an update of statistics on the blood lead levels (BLL) of children in the United Discusses blood lead levels (BLLs) in the United States between 1991-1994. Lead exposure in young children as a particular hazard; The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination surveys (NHANES) as the primary source for monitoring BLLs in the United States population; Phase III of NHANES as indicating that BLLs in the United States continued to decrease.

Describes an investigation into lead poisoning in a boy from Oregon who swallowed a medallion pendant from a necklace sold in a toy vending machine. Symptoms; Hospital treatment, including an abdominal radiograph and endoscopy; Admission to the pediatric intensive care unit three days later for intravenous chelation therapy; Finding by the state environmental quality lab that the medallion had a high lead content; Warning that more medallions might still be sold in vending machines in the state.

Discusses the need to protect children against lead poisoning. What lead poisoning is; Sources, including paint dust and tap water in homes that have lead pipes; Mention of two studies on the health effects of lead in this issue; Contact information.

Reports that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released an updated statement on the prevention of childhood lead poisoning on October 7, 1941. Provision of guidelines to pediatric healthcare providers and healthcare programs; Case management for lead-poisoned children.

Discusses the plan of the U.S. Public Health Service to eliminate childhood lead poisoning in the U.S. Prevalence of lead poisoning among children in the U.S.; Source of lead poisoning in children; Features of the plan of the U.S. Public Health Service.

Reports that physicians frequently do not follow blood lead testing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results of a survey of pediatricians on their blood lead testing practices; Publication of the study in the September 1997 issue of `American Journal of Public Health.'