Abstract
Scientists struggle to determine whether people have had past exposure to lead, a neurotoxic element with no known safe level. Blood tests show only exposure experienced within the past 4 weeks. Now, researchers have used lost baby teeth to measure prenatal and postnatal lead exposure in children who lived near a polluting battery recycling plant in Los Angeles (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.9b00429). The Exide Technologies plant processed millions of car batteries per year, emitting lead and arsenic from its smokestacks until it shut down in March 2015. Nearby residents wanted to know what they had been unwittingly exposed to. Community volunteers gathered 50 baby teeth that had been saved from 43 kids (aged 7–18) who had lived within a 3.2 km radius of the smelter their entire lives. The communities nearby are more than 90% Latino and rank among the top 10% most environmentally burdened neighborhoods in California,
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