Abstract
In the last two decades, vehicular traffic increased spectacularly in Saudi Arabia, from 243,000 registered motor vehicles in 1973 to over 5 million at present. All these vehicles use leaded gasoline, one of the major sources of lead contamination in the ambient air and dusts in the cities. To evaluate the impact of this high level of environmental lead, scalp hair of 200 school boys, aged 6-8 years, from each of the two cities (Makkah in the western region and Riyadh in the central region) and two Village Groups (one around Makkah city and the other around Riyadh city) were analyzed in this study for lead concentrations. Makkah is one of the oldest and most densely populated cities with congested housing and narrow winding streets. Riyadh on the other hand is the newly developing, planned capital city of Saudi Arabia. The Village Groups were chosen so as to reflect a control environment away from heavy traffic and industrial activity. The usefulness of hair as an important biopsy material for environmental pollution studies has been demonstrated in a large number of studies. Effect of lead on the central nervous system of the children may result in mental retardation and even deathmore » in case of acute encephalopathy.« less
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