IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v15y2018i10p2153-d173014.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Children’s Blood Lead Concentrations from 1988 to 2015 in Mexico City: The Contribution of Lead in Air and Traditional Lead-Glazed Ceramics

Author

Listed:
  • Ivan Pantic

    (Department of Developmental Neurobiology, National Institute of Perinatology, Mexico City 11000, CDMX, Mexico)

  • Marcela Tamayo-Ortiz

    (National Council of Science and Technology, Mexico City 03940, CDMX, Mexico
    Center for Nutrition and Health Research, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca 62100, Morelos, Mexico)

  • Antonio Rosa-Parra

    (Center for Nutrition and Health Research, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca 62100, Morelos, Mexico)

  • Luis Bautista-Arredondo

    (Center for Nutrition and Health Research, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca 62100, Morelos, Mexico)

  • Robert O. Wright

    (Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA)

  • Karen E. Peterson

    (Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA)

  • Lourdes Schnaas

    (Department of Developmental Neurobiology, National Institute of Perinatology, Mexico City 11000, CDMX, Mexico)

  • Stephen J. Rothenberg

    (Center for Population Health Research, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca 62100, Morelos, Mexico)

  • Howard Hu

    (Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle, WA 98195, USA)

  • Martha María Téllez-Rojo

    (Center for Nutrition and Health Research, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca 62100, Morelos, Mexico)

Abstract

Despite the removal of lead from gasoline in 1997, elevated blood lead levels (BLLs) > 5 µg/dL are still detectable in children living in Mexico City. The use of lead-glazed ceramics may explain these persistent exposure levels. Mexico lacks a national surveillance program for BLL, but temporal trends can be derived from epidemiological studies. With this approach, we leveraged a series of birth cohorts to report BLL trends from 1987 to 2002 and expanded our analysis to 2015. Data were from 1–5-year-old children from five Mexico City cohorts followed between 1988 and 2015. BLLs are reported on 1963 children, who contributed 4975 BLLs. We estimated the trend of mean BLL, which decreased from 15.7 µg/dL in 1988, to 7.8 µg/dL in 1998 (a year after the total ban of lead in gasoline), to 1.96 µg/dL in 2015. The proportion of BLL ≥ 5 µg/dL decreased from 92% (1988–1998) to 8% (2008–2015). The use of lead-glazed ceramics was associated with an 11% increase in BLLs throughout the study period. Replacing lead-based glazes in traditional ceramics may be the key to further reducing exposure, but this presents challenges, as it involves a cultural tradition deeply rooted in Mexico. In addition, the creation of a rigorous, standardized, and on-going surveillance program of BLL is necessary for identifying vulnerable populations.

Suggested Citation

  • Ivan Pantic & Marcela Tamayo-Ortiz & Antonio Rosa-Parra & Luis Bautista-Arredondo & Robert O. Wright & Karen E. Peterson & Lourdes Schnaas & Stephen J. Rothenberg & Howard Hu & Martha María Téllez-Roj, 2018. "Children’s Blood Lead Concentrations from 1988 to 2015 in Mexico City: The Contribution of Lead in Air and Traditional Lead-Glazed Ceramics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-11, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:10:p:2153-:d:173014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2153/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2153/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hanna-Attisha, M. & LaChance, J. & Sadler, R.C. & Schnepp, A.C., 2016. "Elevated blood lead levels in children associated with the flint drinking water crisis: A spatial analysis of risk and public health response," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 106(2), pages 283-290.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Katarzyna Kordas & Julia Ravenscroft & Ying Cao & Elena V. McLean, 2018. "Lead Exposure in Low and Middle-Income Countries: Perspectives and Lessons on Patterns, Injustices, Economics, and Politics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, October.
    2. Howard W. Mielke & Christopher R. Gonzales & Eric T. Powell & Sara Perl Egendorf, 2022. "Lead in Air, Soil, and Blood: Pb Poisoning in a Changing World," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-11, August.
    3. Luke Montrose & Jaclyn M. Goodrich & Masako Morishita & Joseph Kochmanski & Zachary Klaver & Raymond Cavalcante & Julie C. Lumeng & Karen E. Peterson & Dana C. Dolinoy, 2020. "Neonatal Lead (Pb) Exposure and DNA Methylation Profiles in Dried Bloodspots," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-17, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rama Natarajan & Dana Aljaber & Dawn Au & Christine Thai & Angelica Sanchez & Alan Nunez & Cristal Resto & Tanya Chavez & Marta M. Jankowska & Tarik Benmarhnia & Jiue-An Yang & Veronica Jones & Jernej, 2020. "Environmental Exposures during Puberty: Window of Breast Cancer Risk and Epigenetic Damage," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-17, January.
    2. Kunwar, Samrat B. & Khatiwada, Niraj & Rahman, Mohammad Mashiur & Liu, Menqui & Thapa, Swati & Bohara, Alok K. & Wang, Jingjing, 2023. "Reimagining Teaching Water Issues through Experiential Learning," Applied Economics Teaching Resources (AETR), Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 5(3), September.
    3. Jason A. Hubbart & Kaylyn S. Gootman, 2021. "A Call to Broaden Investment in Drinking Water Testing and Community Outreach Programs," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Shan Parker & Vicki Johnson-Lawrence, 2022. "Addressing Trauma-Informed Principles in Public Health through Training and Practice," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-14, July.
    5. Tuviere Onookome-Okome & Angel Hsu & Dean G. Kilpatrick & Angela Moreland & Aaron Reuben, 2023. "Association of Public Works Disasters with Substance Use Difficulties: Evidence from Flint, Michigan, Five Years after the Water Crisis Onset," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(23), pages 1-12, November.
    6. Deniz Yeter & Ellen C. Banks & Michael Aschner, 2020. "Disparity in Risk Factor Severity for Early Childhood Blood Lead among Predominantly African-American Black Children: The 1999 to 2010 US NHANES," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-26, February.
    7. Kai Chen & Xiaoping Lin & Han Wang & Yujie Qiang & Jie Kong & Rui Huang & Haining Wang & Hui Liu, 2022. "Visualizing the Knowledge Base and Research Hotspot of Public Health Emergency Management: A Science Mapping Analysis-Based Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-23, June.
    8. Rui Wang & Xi Chen & Xun Li, 2022. "Something in the pipe: the Flint water crisis and health at birth," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1723-1749, October.
    9. Daniel S. Grossman & David J.G. Slusky, 2019. "The Impact of the Flint Water Crisis on Fertility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(6), pages 2005-2031, December.
    10. Tarik Benmarhnia & Ianis Delpla & Lara Schwarz & Manuel J. Rodriguez & Patrick Levallois, 2018. "Heterogeneity in the Relationship between Disinfection By-Products in Drinking Water and Cancer: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-13, May.
    11. John T. Doyle & Larry Kindness & James Realbird & Margaret J. Eggers & Anne K. Camper, 2018. "Challenges and Opportunities for Tribal Waters: Addressing Disparities in Safe Public Drinking Water on the Crow Reservation in Montana, USA," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-13, March.
    12. Richard Casey Sadler & Amanda Y. Kong & Zachary Buchalski & Erika Renee Chanderraj & Laura A. Carravallah, 2021. "Linking the Flint Food Store Survey: Is Objective or Perceived Access to Healthy Foods Associated with Glycemic Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-13, September.
    13. Stephen C. Bondy & Arezoo Campbell, 2017. "Water Quality and Brain Function," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    14. Matthew Tuson & Matthew Yap & Mei Ruu Kok & Bryan Boruff & Kevin Murray & Alistair Vickery & Berwin A. Turlach & David Whyatt, 2022. "Improving the Efficiency of Geographic Target Regions for Healthcare Interventions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-22, November.
    15. Wai Ling Lee & Jie Jia & Yani Bao, 2016. "Identifying the Gaps in Practice for Combating Lead in Drinking Water in Hong Kong," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-18, September.
    16. Jessica Sauve‐Syed, 2024. "Lead exposure and student outcomes: A study of Flint schools," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 432-448, March.
    17. Paul J Molino & Richard Bentham & Michael J Higgins & Jason Hinds & Harriet Whiley, 2019. "Public Health Risks Associated with Heavy Metal and Microbial Contamination of Drinking Water in Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-12, October.
    18. Brenda D. Koester & Stephanie Sloane & Elinor M. Fujimoto & Barbara H. Fiese & Leona Yi-Fan Su, 2021. "What Do Childcare Providers Know about Environmental Influences on Children’s Health? Implications for Environmental Health Literacy Efforts," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-11, May.
    19. Carla Campbell & Rachael Greenberg & Deepa Mankikar & Ronald D. Ross, 2016. "A Case Study of Environmental Injustice: The Failure in Flint," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-11, September.
    20. Richard Casey Sadler & Kristian Larsen, 2022. "Mapping the Way to Good Health: The Interdisciplinary Challenges of Geographers in Medical Research," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-13, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:10:p:2153-:d:173014. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.