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The relationship between blood lead, bone lead and child intelligence

  • Gail A. Wasserman
  • , Pam Factor-Litvak
  • , Xinhua Liu
  • , Andrew C. Todd
  • , Jennie K. Kline
  • , Vesna Slavkovich
  • , Dusan Popovac
  • , Joseph H. Graziano

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

52 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report associations between serial measures of blood lead and intelligence in children age 10-12 years, half heavily exposed to lead from the prenatal period onward, and half relatively unexposed. For a subsample, we examine bone lead-IQ associations, comparing them with bone lead associations. Both blood and bone lead levels were associated with intelligence decrements, small relative to the contribution of social factors. For each doubling of Tib-Pb, Full Scale, Performance, and Verbal IQ decreased by an estimated 5.5, 6.2, and 4.1 points, respectively. Bone lead-IQ associations were stronger than those for blood lead, which nonetheless provide robust analogues. Current BPb, easy to obtain, provides a useful means for assessing Pb exposure/IQ associations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)22-34
Number of pages13
JournalChild Neuropsychology
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2003

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