title: Ethical issues in using children's blood lead levels as a remedial action objective.
abstract: The Environmental Protection Agency measures the success or failure of Superfund site remediation efforts against remedial action objectives (RAOs). RAOs are frequently based on environmental contaminant concentrations, but with lead exposure, blood lead levels from the population at risk are often used. Although childhood lead screening is an important public health tool, an RAO based on child blood lead levels raises ethical concerns: public health efforts that are more reactive than preventive, a blood lead standard (10 μg/dL) that may not be fully protective, the use of a measure whose validity and reliability may be easily compromised, and exacerbation of environmental injustice and systematic disadvantages. The example of Bunker Hill mine, Kellogg, Idaho, allowed an examination of these ethical concerns.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Health Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. moodie.sue@gmail.com
authors.forename: Sue M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Moodie
authors.forename: Emily Lorraine
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Evans
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000941:ethics; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000941:ethics*; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007061:Idaho; D007223:Infant; D007854:Lead / Q000097:blood* / Q000633:toxicity; D007855:Lead Poisoning / Q000097:blood*; D008452:Maximum Allowable Concentration; D008906:Mining; D012935:Social Justice; D014481:United States; D014484:United States Environmental Protection Agency
chemical_list: D007854:Lead