Study on blood lead level and related factors of children in Shenzhen

OBJECTIVE To investigate the blood lead level of children in Shenzhen,analyze the effect factors of increase of blood lead level,and promote reasonable and effective preventive measures to reduce the blood lead level of children.METHODS Children of health examination in department of child health were randomly selected,the lead level in blood was detected by atomic absorption spectrometer,and analyze the relation of the blood lead level and children's age or sex.Their parents were surveyed and asked to finish a questionnaire.Conditional Logistic regression was used for the main effect factors for increasing blood lead level.RESULTS The average of 16076 children blood lead(x ± s) was(41.22 ± 25.93) μg /L.264 children have lead poisoning.The incidence rate of lead poisoning in children was 1.64%.The blood lead level in boys was significantly higher than that in girls(P ﹤ 0.01).The blood lead level and the lead poisoning rate increased with age in children of 0-6 years,keeping maintenance level older than 6 years.The main effect factors that increasing blood lead level included sucking fingers and nibbling foreign bodies,eating preserved egg,popcorn,puffed food and house adjacent to gas station.Eating meat egg milk or zinc calcium chalybeate usually can protect children from lead poisoning.CONCLUSION The blood lead levels of children in Shenzhen was relatively lower than the national average.But higher than developed countries.unhealthy lifestyle and dietary behaviors and environment pollution maybe the effect factors of increasING of blood lead level.So health education,adjusting nutritional diet and developing a good habit maybe effective and economic methods for reducing lead poisoning in children.