title: Environmental lead pollution threatens the children living in the Pearl River Delta region, China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study is to determine children's blood lead levels and identify sources of lead exposure. Childhood lead exposure constitutes a major pediatric health problem today in China. A blood lead screening survey program for children in the age group of 2-12 years residing in Pearl River Delta region, south of China, was carried out from Dec 2007 to Jan 2008.
  
  
  METHODS
  Blood lead levels and lead isotope ratios of a total of 761 participants were assessed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy. Measurements of urban environmental samples for source identification of children lead exposure were also performed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The geometric mean value of the children's blood lead levels was 57.05 μg/L, and 9.6% of them were higher than 100 μg/L. The blood lead levels were still much higher than those in developed countries. Based on the data of environmental lead source inventories, lead isotopic tracing revealed that there is about 6.7% past used gasoline Pb embedded in Shenzhen residential dust and about 15.6% in Guangzhou dust, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Global Application Laboratory, PerkinElmer Analytical Sciences, Shelton, CT 06484, USA.
authors.forename: Jianmin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yongpeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: Jiazhang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yulan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Mingguang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004391:Dust / Q000032:analysis; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000097:blood*; D004787:Environmental Pollution; D005260:Female; D005742:Gasoline / Q000032:analysis; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007854:Lead / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D004391:Dust; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D005742:Gasoline; D007854:Lead