Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Apr 5;62(13):245-8.

Blood lead levels in children aged 1-5 years - United States, 1999-2010

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Blood lead levels in children aged 1-5 years - United States, 1999-2010

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. .

Abstract

The adverse health effects of lead exposure in children are well described and include intellectual and behavioral deficits, making lead exposure an important public health problem. No safe blood lead level (BLL) in children has been identified. To estimate the number of children aged 1-5 years in the United States at risk for adverse health effects from lead exposure and to assess the impact of prevention efforts, CDC analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from the periods 1999-2002 to 2007-2010. This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which indicated that the percentage of children aged 1-5 years with BLLs at or above the upper reference interval value of 5 µg/dL calculated using the 2007-2010 NHANES cycle was 2.6%. Thus, an estimated 535,000 U.S. children aged 1-5 years had BLLs ≥5 µg/dL based on the U.S. Census Bureau 2010 count of the number of children in this age group. Despite progress in reducing BLLs among children in this age group overall, differences between the mean BLLs of different racial/ethnic and income groups persist, and work remains to be done to reach the Healthy People 2020 objective of reducing mean BLLs for all children in the United States (EH-8.2).

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Toxicological profile for lead. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry; 2007. Available at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp13.pdf. - PubMed
    1. US Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy people 2020: topics and objectives index. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services; 2012. Available at http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020.
    1. CDC. Preventing lead poisoning in young children. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 1991. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/publications/books/plpyc/contents.htm.
    1. CDC Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention. Low level lead exposure harms children: a renewed call for primary prevention. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 2012. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/acclpp/final_document_030712.pdf.
    1. CDC. Laboratory procedure manual for the analysis of lead, cadmium and mercury by icp-drc-ms in whole blood. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services; 2009. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/nhanes_09_10/pbcd_f_met.pdf.