title: Surveillance of elevated blood lead levels in children in Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico, 1998-2010.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Because children exposed to lead have a very high health risk, surveillance and prevention programs are very important to avoid short- and long-term health effects.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To describe the trend for the blood lead levels over a 12-year period in environmentally exposed children and to document the actions implemented to reduce the blood lead levels.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a retrospective cohort study of children aged 0-15 years who were enrolled in the Coahuila Health Secretary's Childhood Blood Lead Level Surveillance program. This database includes children from the city of Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico, where the biggest smelter in Latin America is located.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 151,322 observations were analyzed in the study. The percentage of samples with elevated blood lead levels decreased from 84.9% to 10.4% during 1998-2010, and the decrease was greater in girls than in boys.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  According to the results of our study, the majority of strategies and activities to decrease blood lead levels in an environmentally exposed population should be focused on children aged 0-5 years, on the home environment, on preventing fugitive emissions from smelters and other sources and on the proper disposal and confinement of industrial residues.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Health Department, Faculty of Medicine at Torreon, University of Coahuila, Mexico. rrecio@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Rogelio
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Recio-Vega
authors.forename: Camilo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Valdez-Abrego
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Adame-Lopez
authors.forename: Aurora
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gurrola-Mendez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000097:blood*; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007854:Lead / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D007854:Lead