Lead-Glazed Ceramic Ware and Blood Lead Levels of Children in the City of Oaxaca,Mexico |
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| Authors: | Maria Isabel Azcona-cruz Stephen J Rothenberg Lourdes Schnaas Jose S Zamora-Muñoz Manuel Romero-placeres |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Public Health National Institute of Public Health , Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico;2. Center for Research in Population Health National Institute of Public Health , Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico;3. Department of Anesthesiology and Center for Environmental Research , Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science , Los Angeles, California;4. Department of Developmental Neurobiology , National Institute of Perinatology , Mexico City, Mexico;5. Institute of Research in Mathematics and Systems National Autonomous University of Mexico CP , Mexico City, Mexico;6. School of Public Health National Institute of Public Health , Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico;7. National Institute of Hygiene, Epidemiology, and Microbiology , Havana, Cuba |
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| Abstract: | Although Mexico substantially reduced use of leaded gasoline during the 1990s, lead-glazed pottery remains a significant source of population exposure. Most previous studies of lead in nonoccupationally exposed groups in Mexico have been conducted in the Mexico City metropolitan area. Oaxaca, a poor southern state of Mexico, has a centuries-old tradition of use of low temperature lead-glazed ceramic ware manufactured mainly by small family businesses. We measured blood lead levels in 220 8–10-y-old children (i.e., not from pottery-making families) who were students in the innercity of Oaxaca and in the mothers of all children. The geometric mean blood lead level of the children was 10.5 μmlg/dl (+7.0/–4.3 μmlg/dl standard deviation; range = 1.3–35.5 μmlg/dl). The corresponding mean value for the mothers was 13.4 (+9.0/–5.4 μmlg/dl standard deviation; range = 2.8–45.3 μmlg/dl). We used cutoffs that were greater than or equal to 10 μmlg/dl, 20 μmlg/dl, and 30 μmlg/dl, and we determined that 54.9%, 10.3%, and 3.0% of the children were at or above the respective criteria. We accounted for 25.2% of the variance in blood lead levels of the children, using maternal responses to a questionnaire that assessed possible lead sources in a linear multiple-regression model. The most important factors related to lead levels were family use of lead-glazed pottery, use of animal fat in cooking, and family income. The addition of maternal blood lead level to the model increased accounted variance in blood lead to 48.0%. In logistic-regression modeling of children's blood lead levels, we used a cutoff of greater than or equal to 10 μmlg/dl, and we found that use of lead-glazed pottery was the most important of all questionnaire items that were predictive of blood lead levels (odds ratio = 2.98). In Oaxaca, as is the case elsewhere in Mexico, lead-glazed ceramic ware remains a significant risk factor for elevated blood lead levels in children. |
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