Chapter 8 - Lead Exposure in Human Populations: Lead Toxicokinetics and Biomarkers of Lead Exposure

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on lead (Pb) toxicokinetics and biomarkers of lead exposure. Toxicokinetics describes the biokinetics of toxic substances. It includes the kinetic processes for toxic substances which govern the movement into, within, and from the bodies of human populations. The overall lead toxicokinetic process includes: (1) the uptake of lead into the bloodstream from various body compartments, (2) movement within the bloodstream followed by transport internally to target tissues and their cellular components, (3) retention within one or more tissues, and (4) excretion from the body by various systemic pathways. The chapter discusses two critical roles in the delineation of lead toxicity: (1) it provides the kinetic underpinnings for expressions of lead intoxication in humans and other species and (2) lead's kinetic behavior in vivo provides the means by which biomarkers of toxic lead exposures can be identified and exploited and the dose portion of critical dose–toxic response relationships for lead poisoning can be determined.