title: Blood lead levels of maternal-cord pairs, children and adults who live in a central urban area in Turkey.
abstract: Lead levels were measured in blood samples of 99 adults, 180 children and 143 pregnant women living in Eskişehir, an urban area in Turkey. One hundred and twenty 120 cord blood and 93 breast-milk samples were also obtained. Mean lead level in blood of adults, children, pregnants, cord blood and in breast-milk samples were 3.13 +/- 1.4 microg/dl, 3.56 +/- 1.7 microg/dl, 2.8 +/- 1.5 microg/dl, 1.65 +/- 1.4 microg/dl and 2.34 +/- 1 microg/L, respectively. It was higher in men than in women in adults (p<0.05) and in iron-deficient children than in those not deficient (p<0.01), and was negatively correlated with body weight (BW) and hemoglobin (Hb) in children (p<0.05 for both). Maternal lead level was strongly related with cord blood and breast-milk lead contents (p<0.001, p<0.0001, respectively). The lead exposure in this region is much lower than the critical level defined for lead poisoning as >10 microg/dl by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention iron deficiency poor nutrition are the risk factors to lead exposure in children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Osmangazi University Faculty of Medicine, Eskişehir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Birgül
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kirel
authors.forename: M Arif
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Akşit
authors.forename: Hakan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bulut
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000737:chemistry*; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007854:Lead / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000737:chemistry*; D011247:Pregnancy; D014421:Turkey; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins; D007854:Lead