Abstract
Children with accidental ingestions exhibit excessive hand-to-mouth behavior. In a lead-burdened environment, hand-to-mouth behavior contributes to increased lead absorption. To test the hypothesis that accidental-ingestion patients experience greater lead absorption than other urban children, 95 children under 6 years of age with recent ingestions of nonlead-containing materials and a matched control group were compared. Ingestors had higher mean blood lead levels than controls (25.0 μg/dl versus 22.2 μg/dl, P = 0.036) and higher mean erythrocyte protoporphyrin levels (40.6 μg/dl versus 28.6 μg/dl, P = 0.006). Ingestion victims were more than three times as likely as controls to be classified as having increased lead absorption. Thumbsucking was twice as common among ingestors as controls (37% versus 19%). These findings indicate that children with accidental ingestions are at greater risk of increased lead absorption than other urban children.
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