Which of the following situations increase the risk of lead poisoning in children?
A. playing in the park with heavy traffic and with many vehicles passing by
B. playing sand in the park
C. playing plastic balls with other children
D. playing with stuffed toys at home
Correct Answer: A. Playing in the park with heavy traffic and with many vehicles passing by.
Lead poisoning may be caused by inhalation of dust and smoke from leaded gas. It may also be caused by lead-based paint, soil, water (especially from plumbings of old houses). Approximately 535000 children between 1 and 5 years of age have an elevated blood lead concentration, defined by the Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as greater than or equal to 5mcg/dL based on the 97.5 percentile of blood lead concentrations in the most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) dataset.
Option B: Several million young children in the United States live in older homes in which lead-based paint was previously used, and as this old paint ages, it peels, flakes, and crumbles into dust that settles on the interior surfaces of homes and in the soil surrounding the exterior of the home.
Option C: Despite the fact that the amount of lead in paint intended for use in or on residential buildings, furniture, or children’s toys in the United States has been restricted to 0.06% since 1978 and was further reduced to 0.009% in 2008, lead-based paint continues to be a major source of lead exposure in young children.
Option D: Prevalence rates of children under 1 year of age with elevated blood lead concentrations are consistently lower than those in the 1 to 4 year age group, likely because lead is a cumulative toxin and because young children are more mobile and overall have more hand-to-mouth behavior compared to infants.