Revisiting nonresidential environmental exposures and childhood lead poisoning in the US: Findings from Kansas,2000-2005

Although blood lead levels (blls) in us children have dramatically declined over the past 40 years,there remain pockets of children living in areas with elevated blls. while some increases (≥10 g/dl) may be associated with legacy lead paint,ambient air lead may be contributing to the problem. a deidentified dataset of information on over 60,000 kansas children under 3 years of age who were tested for bll was provided through the kansas environmental public health tracking network for the period 2000-2005. using arcgis,we calculated distance (in miles) from a lead-emitting industry referred to as a toxic release inventory (tri) site. the usepa tri database tracks the management of certain toxic chemicals that may pose a threat to human health. us facilities in different industry sectors must report annually amount of substances like lead into the environment including their exact location. distance from a tri site was inversely related to bll after controlling for area-level poverty and pre-1950 housing. the results of our evaluation indicate there is a significant relationship between proximity to lead industry and childhood blls. proximity to sources of lead emissions should be evaluated as a possible factor when identifying children for targeted bll testing. © 2016 lu ann brink et al.