Lead in children's blood is mainly caused by coal-fired ash after phasing out of leaded gasoline in Shanghai.
Lead (Pb) is a highly toxic element to the human body. After phasing out of leaded gasoline we find that the blood lead level of children strongly correlates with the lead concentration in atmospheric particles, and the latter correlates with the coal consumption instead of leaded gasoline. Combined with the (207)Pb/(206)Pb ratio measurements, we find that the coal consumption fly ash is a dominate source of Pb exposure to children in Shanghai, rather than vehicle exhaust, metallurgic dust, paint dust, and drinking water. Those particles are absorbed to children's blood via breathing and digesting their deposition on ground by hand-to-mouth activities. Probably the same situation occurs in other large cities of developing countries where the structure of energy supply is mainly based on coal-combustion.
Liang
Feng
F
Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China.
Zhang
Guilin
G
Tan
Mingguang
M
Yan
Chonghuai
C
Li
Xiaolin
X
Li
Yulan
Y
Li
Yan
Y
Zhang
Yuanmao
Y
Shan
Zuci
Z
D001272:Atmosphere / Q000737:chemistry; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D003031:Coal / Q000032:analysis*; D060729:Coal Ash; D005742:Gasoline / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D007554:Isotopes; D007854:Lead / Q000097:blood*; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D011210:Power Plants
D003031:Coal; D060729:Coal Ash; D005742:Gasoline; D007554:Isotopes; D052638:Particulate Matter; D007854:Lead; D002244:Carbon