title: Lead levels in blood bank blood.
abstract: Although blood bank blood is usually screened for dangerous pathogens, the presence of toxic metals in blood has received little attention. Population blood lead levels have been declining in the United States, but occasional high outliers in blood lead concentration can be found--even when mean levels of blood lead are low. We sampled 999 consecutive blood bank bags from the King/Drew Medical Center, used between December 1999 and February 2000. The geometric mean blood lead level was 1.0 microg/dl (0.048 micromol/l), but 0.5% of the samples had lead levels that exceeded 10 microg/dl, and 2 samples had lead levels that exceeded 30 microg/dl. The 2 samples with the highest lead levels could have presented an additional risk to infants if they were used for blood replacement. Therefore, even in countries with generally low population blood lead levels, blood bank blood should be screened for lead concentration prior to use with infants.
authors.affiliation: King-Drew Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bulleova
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Rothenberg
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Manalo
mesh_terms: D001771:Blood Banks / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001810:Blood Volume; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006786:Hospitals, Urban; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007854:Lead / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000097:blood*; D015141:Los Angeles; D008403:Mass Screening; D008452:Maximum Allowable Concentration; D011634:Public Health; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012494:Sampling Studies
chemical_list: D007854:Lead