Source

Source

In many urban inner-city areas of the United States, there is an epidemic of childhood blood lead poisoning (Gould, 2009). It has been estimated that 24.5%, or 9.6 million U.S. children have a blood lead in the range of 2 to 10 micrograms per decilitre, a level which will cause sub-clinical signs (Gould, 2009). The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III 1999-2002 database indicates that approximately 2.4 million children have blood Pb levels between 5 and 9.9 microgram/deciliter (Iqbal et al., 2008) and that within that population of 1-'5-year olds with blood Pb levels of 5 microgram/deciliter or higher, the prevalence was 47% for non-Hispanic Black children, 28% for Mexican American children, and 19% for non-Hispanic White children (Bernard and McGeehin, 2003). The fact that children of color are nearly 4 times more likely than white children to have blood Pb levels between 5 and 10 microgram/deciliter (and 13 times more likely to have blood Pb levels above 20 microgram/deciliter) (Bernard and McGeehin, 2003) raises concerns about social justice and the long-term health of these children. In addition, in 2004, in 10 ABLES states, a total of 10,527 females aged 16--44 years were tested, and all BLLs for this group were reported. Of the number tested, 1,370 (13.0%) had BLLs >5 µg/dL (10.9 per 100,000 female residents aged 16--44 years). I have not located the breakdown by race or by urban versus suburban area yet.

Soil Lead Blood Lead Dose-Response:All Examples

Dose-Response-USEPA IEUBK Model

Dose Response - Empirical Relationships

Note that the empirical relationship between soil lead and blood lead observed in New Orleans (below) and Detroit (below) displays steeper slopes than the USEPA IEUBK model (above). This could possibly suggest that IEUBK model is under-predicting blood lead levels at lower concentrations.

New Orleans - Soil Lead Blood lead - Empirical Relationship

Dose-Response - Detroit

Plot of Soil Lead Versus Children's Blood Lead in Detroit - Bickell 2010

Source - Bickell (2010)

Lanphear et al. (1998): increasing soil lead concentration from background to 400 micrograms/g was estimated to produce an increase of 11.6% in the percentage of children estimated to have a blood lead level exceeding 10 micrograms/dL.

Malcoe et al. (2002): Logistic regression of yard soil lead >165.3 mg/kg (OR, 4.1; CI, 1.3-12.4) were independently associated with BPbs greater than or equal to 10 microg/dL.

Texas Dept. of Health (2004): Using large database from El Paso Area, study found an odds ratio 4.5 (1.4, 14.2)for the relationship between a 500 ppm increase in soil lead and blood lead level > 10 ug/dl.

Maisonette (1997): yard soil remediation showed the strongest association with changes in blood lead levels. This variable was found to be a protective factor for elevated blood lead levels in children (odds ratio, 0.28; confidence interval, 0.08-0.92).

2011 Lead Poisoning Health Effects Review Paper - Highly Recommended!

In cases of chronic exposure lead often sequesters in the highest concentrations first in the bones/teeth, then in the kidneys.

Lead Concentrations In Bones/teeth Increase With Age

Priest and Frank (1990) reviewed the literature regarding lead in bones and teeth. Priest and Frank (1990) indicated that modern skeletal levels have been claimed to be 1000 times greater those determined in ancient Peruvian skeletons. The levels of lead in bones has been observed to be highest in inner city residents compared to suburban and rural residents. In addition, a linear increase in the logarithm of the bone lead concentration was found with age (r=0.9). At ages 3 to 4, the mean bone lead concentration for urban specimens was 5.55 ppm 4.05 ppm for suburban, and for rural as little as 1.9 ppm, whereas at ages 9 to 10, the means were 13.1, 10 and 6.3 respectively. Teeth in urban children contained five times as much lead as those of rural children. Another study showed urban tooth lead levels twice as high as suburban levels. These findings have been observed internationally. Thus it has been shown that children efficiently absorb lead which is stored in their bones.(Source - Priest, Nicholas D. , and Van de Vyver Frank. 1990. Trace Metals and Fluoride in Bones and Teeth. CRC Press, 400 p).

Lead Stored in Women's Bones Is Episodically Released During Pregnancy Exposing Fetus and Mother to Lead

2012 Association Between Aggravated Assault and Air Pb - Six City Study - United States

2016 Association Between Aggravated Assault and Air Pb - Australia

IF it is assumed that there is causality between lead exposure and violent attacks, what does that say about the culpability of those who were placed in prisons as a result of the lead peak, as well as those inprisoned due to violence in the inner cities? I do not know the answer.

Toxicity of low level Pb exposure typically caused by exposure to Pb in soil dust

Low PbB levels (<10 ug/dL) typically associated with urban soil Pb exposure are associated with a myriad of health outcomes. Low PbB levels (<10 ug/dL) are associated with Attention-Deﬁcit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)(Nigg et al., 2010), a reduction in children’s tests scores for reading (odds ratio = 0.51, p = 0.006) (Chandramouli et al., 2009), writing (odds ratio = 0.49, p = 0.003) (Chandramouli et al., 2009; Miranda et al., 2007) and mathematics (Miranda et al., 2007). Canfield et al. (2003) observed that when lifetime average PbB concentrations in children increased from 1 to 10 mg/dL, the intelligence quotient (IQ) declined by 7.4 points. Jusko et al. (2008) observed that compared with children who had lifetime average PbB concentrations < 5 mg/ dL, children with lifetime average concentrations between 5 and 9.9 mg/dL scored 4.9 points lower on Full-Scale IQ (91.3 vs. 86.4, p = 0.03). Similarly, Surkan et al. (2007) observed that children with 5-10 mg/dL had 5.0 (S.D. 2.3) points lower IQ scores compared to children with PbB levels of 1-2 mg/dL (p = 0.03). Interestingly, multiple studies have shown that that the strongest Pb effects on IQ occurred within the the first few micrograms of PbB (Schnaas et al., 2006; Canfield et al., 2003; Lanphear et al., 2005). Low PbB levels (<10 ug/dL) have also been associated with various physiological outcomes such as kidney damage (Fadrowski et al., 2010), dental caries (Moss et al., 1999), puberty delay in boys (Williams et al., 2010) and girls (Selevan et al., 2003) and cardiovascular outcomes in adults (Navas-Acien et al., 2007).

Detroit Blood Lead and School Outcomes

Source

Solutions to the Problem: Review of the Soil Lead Remediation Literature

Laidlaw, M.A.S., Filippelli, G.M., Brown, S., Paz-Ferreiro, J., Reichman, S.M., Netherway, P., Truskewycz A., Ball A.S., Mielke H.W., 2017. Case studies and evidence-based approaches to addressing urban soil lead contamination. Applied Geochemistry (Accepted)

Solution - Remediation Precedent Set in New Orleans, Evansville and Omaha

1.) Method of Mielke et al.(2011) - New Orleans

"The soil emplacement was conducted by first spreading out a bright orange, water pervious geotextile material to cover the original soil of the play area. The geotextile layer prevents Pb-safe soil from mixing with the underlying original soil and acts as a warning layer to anyone digging into soil. Soil was not removed from the play areas in this project. The Pb-safe soil was from the Bonnet Carré Spillway, located up-river from New Orleans (U.S. ACE or Army Corps of Engineers). The alluvial soil, derived from the sediments of the Mississippi River at the Bonnet Carré Spillway, has a median Pb content of 5 mg/kg (Mielke et al., 2000). The Bonnet Carré soil was transported to the childcare center and emplaced on top of the geotextile layer to a depth of at least 15cm(6 inches)."

Source

2.) USEPA Method - "dig and dump"(more costly than Mielke's Method)

EPA Region 7 Completes 10,000th Residential Yard Cleanup of Lead-Contaminated Soils at Omaha Lead Site in Omaha, Neb.

Jacobsville Neighborhood Lead Contamination Superfund Site Newsletter - May 2011

Boston Pilot Program - Landscaping Mitigates Lead Poisoning

EPA and Partners Celebrate Reduced Lead Exposure in Children; Blood lead levels in children around Tar Creek site in Okla. greatly reduced.

Children in Tar Creek and Ottawa County, Oklahoma had historically been exposed to high levels of lead from former mining operations, especially around the Tar Creek Superfund site. In 1997, 21.5 percent of children living near Tar Creek showed elevated blood levels, defined as readings above 10 µg/dl (micrograms per deciliter). For the same year, 12.61 percent of children in Ottawa Co., OK, showed elevated levels. Since then, through EPA, state, and tribal cleanup activities, lead-contaminated soil has been removed from 2,887 residential yards and public properties in the area. With additional funding from EPA, the Ottawa County Health Department has worked to increase community awareness about lead poisoning prevention and the importance of blood lead screening for children. These activities have achieved striking results, with 0 percent of area children showing elevated levels [>10 micrograms per decilitre] in 2013 .

Simple Non-toxic Way Forward

Geotextile

Geotextile link

Topsoil Slingers

Topsoil Slinger Video # 1

Topsoil Slinger Video # 2

Topsoil Slinger Video # 3

Topsoil Slinger Video # 4

Terraseeding (mix soil and grass seed)

Terraseeding

Hydroseeding

Hydroseeder Video # 1

Soil Treatment Strategy

I recommend that soil covering efforts first be conducted in areas where there is a high prevalence of lead poisoning and where soil lead levels are high (triage). I would first focus on roadside soils (0-25m)within these areas and then continue until areas with high lead poisoning prevalence are covered (or funds permit).

Estimated Cost of Urban Soil Lead Remediation - New Orleans

In the journal Environmental Science and Technology, Mielke et al. (2006) estimated the cost to remediate the soils in New Orleans. The abstract is presented below:

In New Orleans, LA prior to hurricane Katrina 20−30% of inner-city children had elevated blood Pb levels ≥10 μg/dL and 10 census tracts had a median surface soil level of Pb >1000 mg/kg (2.5 times the U.S. standard). This project tests the feasibility of transporting and grading contaminated properties (n = 25) with 15 cm (6 in.) of clean Mississippi River alluvium from the Bonnet Carré Spillway (BCS) (median soil Pb content 4.7 mg/kg; range 1.7−22.8). The initial median surface soil Pb was 1051 mg/kg (maximum 19 627). After 680 metric tons (750 tons) of clean soil cover was emplaced on 6424 m2 (69 153 ft2), the median surface soil Pb decreased to 6 mg/kg (range 3−18). Interior entrance wipe samples were collected at 10 homes before and after soil treatment and showed a decreasing trend of Pb (p value = 0.048) from a median of 52 μg/ft2 to a median of 36 μg/ft2 (25th and 75th percentiles are 22 and 142 μg/ft2 and 12 and 61 μg/ft2, respectively). Average direct costs for properties with homes were $3,377 ($1.95 per square foot), with a range of $1,910−7,020, vs $2,622 ($0.61 per square foot), with a range of $2,400−3,040 for vacant lots. Approximately 40% (86,000) of properties in New Orleans are in areas of >400 mg Pb/kg soil and estimated direct costs for treatment are between $225.5 and $290.4 million. Annual costs of Pb poisoning in New Orleans are estimated at ∼$76 million in health, education, and societal harm. Urban accumulation of Pb is an international problem; for example, the new Government of Norway established a policy precedence for an isolated soil cleanup program at daycare centers, school playgrounds, and parks to protect children. New Orleans requires a community-wide soil cleanup program because of the extent and quantity of accumulated soil Pb. The post-Katrina benefits of reducing soil Pb are expected to outweigh the foreseeable costs of Pb poisoning to children returning to New Orleans.

Estimated Benefit of National Urban Pb Paint and ?Soil? Lead Remediation - United States

Gould, 2009 estimated that the net benefit of lead hazard control ranges from $181 to $269 billion, resulting in a return of $17–$221 for each dollar invested in lead hazard control. Note that the cost benefit by Gould did not include the cost benefit of reductions in autism, preeclampsia, schizophrenia, mental illness and many other diseases associated with lead poisoning. Thus the benefit of lead hazard reduction is likely to be much greater than Gould's estimates.

Recommended Funding Mechanism To Cleanup Urban Soils

Small Gasoline Tax!

Call For Blood Lead Incidence Data Transparency

I strongly suggest that the new Obama government publish child blood lead incidence maps of the top 50 cities in the U.S by graphically displaying the location and all the blood lead concentrations (>5 ug/dl, > 10ug/dl and >20 ug/dl) for the previous 5 years, and updated yearly (see Detroit Blood Lead Incidence Map Above). The percentage of the children sampled should be boldly presented as well. These maps should be available for all to see on one central internet site. The website would be registered with all the major search engines so that anyone could locate the data. This data is already available and could easily be put together in a two month time period by someone experienced in GIS and the internet. The funding cost would be extremely small.

See Dot Maps of Children's Lead Poisoning in Various Wisconsin Cities

Call For National Urban Soil Geochemical Risk Mapping Program

I suggest that the Obama administration use the United States Geological Survey to conduct an urban soil geochemical risk mapping program in the 50 largest cities in the United States. I recommend the geochemical mapping methods be adopted fromthe British Geological Survey, David L Johnson/colleagues at SUNY-ESF or Howard Mielke and colleagues at Tulane/Xavier. The results should be placed online in one central location for anyone to view.

There are three basic things that can be done:

History of Lead

To read the REAL history of Lead in Gasoline, read The Ethyl Controversy by Professor William Kovarik.

Kovarik W. Ethyl-leaded gasoline. How a classic occupational disease became an international public health disaster. Int J Occup Environ Health 2005;11:384-397.

CalTech Masters Thesis on Clair Patterson

Kitman - Secret History of Lead (summary)

Kitman - Secret History of Lead (full version)

Rosner, D., and G. Markowitz 2005. Standing up to the lead industry: An interview with Herbert Needleman. Publ Health Reports 120:330-7.

Markowitz, G., and D. Rosner 2002. Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution. University of California Press.

Number of cases of elevated blood lead levels ≥10 micrograms per decilitre among children aged <5 years, by month in 2012 in the United States (source of data CDC, 2016)

Children's Blood Lead Levels Also Display Strong Seasonal Variations With Peaks Generally in the Summer or Autumn When Soils Are Dry and Prone to Resuspension

A conceptual model of child BPb seasonal Pb poisoning is suggested. Lead from multiple sources has accumulated in soils of urban environments. The seasonal resuspension of Pb-contaminated soil in urban atmospheres appears to be controlled by soil moisture and climate fluctuations. This study (Laidlaw et al., 2005)indicates that higher urban atmospheric Pb loading rates are experienced during periods of low soil moisture and within areas of Pb-contaminated surface soils. Children and adults living in urban areas where surface soils are contaminated with Pb may become exposed through indoor and outdoor inhalation of Pb dust and ingestion of Pb deposited within homes and outdoor surfaces. Because resuspension of Pb from contaminated soil appears to be driving seasonal child BPb fluctuations, concomitantly, we suggest that Pb-contaminated soil in and of itself may be the primary driving mechanism of child BPb poisoning in the urban environment.

Link to source

Laidlaw et al.'s (2005) model used in the three cities above was independently replicated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in an unpublished court case

Soil Lead is a Major Source of Atmospheric Lead via Soil Re-suspension

Weather adjusted air Pb and air soil over time, including median spline fits, for Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago and Birmingham.

Weather adjusted air lead versus air soil with linear fit for peak months (June, July, August, and September) and non peak months (October through May) for Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago and Birmingham combined.

Source - Mark A.S. Laidlaw, Sammy Zahran, Howard W. Mielke, Mark P. Taylor, Gabriel M. Filippelli. 2011. Atmospheric Environment.

Plot of Temporal Variation in Atmospheric Soil and Lead in Detroit - 2001-2009

Scatterplot with median splines of weather adjusted air lead and air soil in time (daily). Weather-adjusted air Pb and soil estimates (µg/m3) are graphed on the daily time-step, fitting distributions of air Pb and soil values with median splines.

Source - Zahran S., Laidlaw M.A.S., McElmurry S.P., Filippelli G.M. Taylor M. (2013)

Supplemental Material

Plot of Temporal Variation in Atmospheric Lead and Children's Blood Lead in Detroit - 2001-2009

Weather-adjusted air Pb (µg/m3) and blood Pb (µg/dL) by age group. Average monthly child blood Pb levels adjusted by local weather conditions, child gender, method of blood draw, and census tract fixed effects

Source - Zahran S., Laidlaw M.A.S., McElmurry S.P., Filippelli G.M. Taylor M. (2013)

Supplemental Material

Early Childhood Lead Exposure and Academic Achievement:Evidence From Detroit Public Schools, 2008–2010 (Zhang et al, 2013)

Rio-Salas et al. (2012) - Atmospheric Environment - Study of urban soil Pb re-suspension

I suggest that when the soil is resuspended, the fine fraction where the bulk of the petrol lead particles reside is suspended in the air. This fraction has a higher concentration than the bulk soil and also has a different isotopic signature (more anthropogenic) than the bulk soil. It is also suggested that air lead concentrations can result in very high concentrations at a height of two (m) in the summertime in cities where the soil lead concentrations are an order of magnitude higher than this Mexican city. It does not take much imagination to understand that air lead concentrations at two metres are at the same height as windows which likely results in air lead penetration into homes.

Source - Rio-Salas et al. (2012

Atmospheric Soils Are Resuspended With Peak Concentrations in the Summer and Autumn in the U.S.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0005019

Despite the dramatic decrease in airborne lead over the past three decades, there are calls for regulatory limits on this potent pediatric neurotoxin lower even than the new (2008) US Environmental Protection Agency standard. To achieve further decreases in airborne lead, what sources would need to be decreased and what costs would ensue? Our aim was to identify and, if possible, quantify the major species (compounds) of lead in recent ambient airborne particulate matter collected in El Paso, TX, USA.



Methodology/Principal Findings: We used synchrotron-based XAFS (x-ray absorption fine structure) to identify and quantify the major Pb species. XAFS provides molecular-level structural information about a specific element in a bulk sample. Pb-humate is the dominant form of lead in contemporary El Paso air. Pb-humate is a stable, sorbed complex produced exclusively in the humus fraction of Pb-contaminated soils; it also is the major lead species in El Paso soils. Thus such soil must be the dominant source, and its resuspension into the air, the transfer process, providing lead particles to the local air.



Conclusions/Significance: Current industrial and commercial activity apparently is not a major source of airborne lead in El Paso, and presumably other locales that have eliminated such traditional sources as leaded gasoline. Instead, local contaminated soil, legacy of earlier anthropogenic Pb releases, serves as a long-term reservoir that gradually leaks particulate lead to the atmosphere. Given the difficulty and expense of large-scale soil remediation or removal, fugitive soil likely constrains a lower limit for airborne lead levels in many urban settings .

Urban Atmospheric Lead Is Associated with Particulate Matter Less Than 10 micron in Size (PM10)

Mexico City - 1991

Link to source

Blood Lead Seasonality

Note the blood lead seasonal patterns below. Whatever drives these seasonal blood lead changes is the major driving force of urban blood lead poisoning.

Unknown City

source- The Lead debate: the environment, toxicology and child health By Richard Lansdown, William Yule

Chicago, Illinois

source

Syracuse, New York

source

Lansing, Michigan

source

Children's Blood Lead Seasonality - State of Michigan: 1999-2012.

Milwaukee,Wisconsin (USA)-New

Link to source

Milwaukee,Wisconsin (USA)-Old

Link to source

Milwaukee Soil Lead Study

St. Louis,Missouri (USA)

Link to source

Link to Another St. Louis Source

Birmingham, England

Link to source

Seasonality of Lead Loading in the Interior of a Northern England House

source

Blood Lead Seasonality in Buxton, England - 1972

Boston,Massachusetts (USA)

Link to source

USEPA state on page iV, ...."Modeled lead levels for air, floor dust and furniture dust all had peaks in July"

New York State, (USA)

Link to source

New York City Atmospheric Lead: 1970-1976

Link to source

New York City Blood Lead Seasonality: 1970-1976

Link to source

Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Cincinatti Atmospheric Lead Seasonality

Link to source

Los Angeles, California (USA)

Link to source

Link to California Soil Lead Studies

Jersey City, New Jersey (USA)

http://www.ehponline.org/members/2000/108p177-182yiin/108p177.pdf



State of New Jersey - 2000 to 2004 (USA) New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services Consumer and Environmental Health Services Environmental Public Health Tracking Project. 2007. Analysis of Risk Factors for Elevated Levels of Blood Lead in New Jersey Children, 2000-2004 Demonstration Project on Geographic Patterns of Childhood Blood Lead and Environmental Factors in New Jersey.

Baltimore, Maryland & New York City (USA)

http://www.restena.lu/lhce/Chimie/Publications/PDF/2_lead_poisoning.pdf

Chicago, Illinois(USA)

http://www.ajph.org/cgi/reprint/54/8/1241.pdf

New Haven, Connecticut(USA)

Source

SEASONAL CHANGES OF CHILDHOOD BLOOD LEAD LEVEL: A STRUCTURED LITERATURE REVIEW (Ngueta et al.)

To make matters more complex, water lead levels also display seasonal variation

Washington DC

source

Montreal

source

UNTESTED Hypothesis for the declines in blood lead levels Following the elimination of lead in gasoline

I have questioned whether the decline if in blood levels following the elimination of lead in gasoline has resulted because in urban areas highly contaminated soils have been resuspended year after year. What could be happening is that a sizable percentage of the resuspended soil and lead falls on impervious surfaces such as roofs and roadways. This material could have then been brought out of the system depositing into sediments in rivers and estuaries. This could conceivably be reducing the lead concentrations in urban soils and subsequents exposures in the atmosphere through resuspension. The "signal" should be present in the sediments of estuaries. (indeed it is in Sydney, AUstralia - see Birch - University of Sydney). This is only a hypothesis at present.