Abstract
Literature related to environmental human lead exposure in Brazil is reviewed comparing methodology, geography, and environmental control approaches to the problems studied. Recent data showed that there are a high number of small, medium, and large size industrial enterprises manipulating lead in the country, several of them operating in poor conditions of occupational and environmental control, leading to abnormal indoor and outdoor lead pollution. However, there are just a few epidemiologic studies that had assessed environmental human exposure and health effects in populations living nearby these facilities. One of the first studies, done in 1978, has showed high levels of lead in hair of an adult population of fishers living and consuming fish and seafood in Santo Amaro, BA, site of the biggest lead refinery in the country (means of hair Pb: 55ppm). After this first study, the same researchers have assessed periodically children's blood lead levels (BLL) at the same community, showing means of 59.1µg/dL (SD:25) in 555 children aged 1-9. The refinery was closed definitely in 1995. Afterwards, a new survey produced means of 17.1µg/dL (SD:7.3) in 47 children aged 1-4, indicating a probable decrease in the environmental contamination levels, but still high levels of exposure, at least for toddlers. Another plant of the same company had operated in the state of Paraná (PR) until 1996. A survey carried out in 1999 showed a median value of BLL in 99 children 7-14 years old of 11.5µg/dL. No BLL data were available for the period when the company was still active. The only study of environmental lead contamination due to a battery recycling plant was carried out in Bauru, SP, in 2001-2, after air and soil lead levels have showed to be above established limits. Shortly after the company has closed BLL of 825 children aged 1-14 showed means of 9.8µg/dL. All these studies have data shown a dose-response gradient of BLL according to the distance from the industrial source.
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