title: Seasons and neighborhoods of high lead toxicity in New York City: The feral pigeon as a bioindicator.
abstract: Human-induced rapid environmental change has created a global pandemic of neurobehavioral disorders in which industrial compounds like lead are the root cause. We assessed the feral pigeon (Columba livia) as a lead bioindicator in New York City. We collected blood lead level records from 825 visibly ill or abnormally behaving pigeons from various NYC neighborhoods between 2010 and 2015. We found that blood lead levels were significantly higher during the summer, an effect reported in children. Pigeon blood lead levels were not significantly different between years or among neighborhoods. However, blood lead levels per neighborhood in Manhattan were positively correlated with mean rates of lead in children identified by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as having elevated blood lead levels (>10 μg/dl). We provide support for the use of the feral pigeon as a bioindicator of environmental lead contamination for the first time in the U.S. and for the first time anywhere in association with rates of elevated blood lead levels in children. This information has the potential to enable measures to assess, strategize, and potentially circumvent the negative impacts of lead and other environmental contaminants on human and wildlife communities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Fayme
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA. Electronic address: rmcalisi@ucdavis.edu.
authors.forename: Rebecca M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Calisi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D010856:Columbidae / Q000097:blood*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D007854:Lead / Q000097:blood*; D009519:New York City; D012621:Seasons
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D007854:Lead
keywords: Bioindicator; Columba livia; Lead; Lead toxicity; New York City; Pb; Pigeon