Blood lead level and its relationship to certain essential elements in the children aged 0 to 14 years from Beijing, China.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate blood lead level and its relationship to copper, zinc, calcium, magnesium and iron in the children aged 0 to 14 years old from Beijing, China.
METHODS: We classified 3181 children into one of the four groups: Group A (n=783, <1 year old); Group B (n=1538, 1-3 years old); Group C (n=443, 3-7 years old); and, Group D (n=417, 7-14 years old). All these metal elements were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry.
RESULTS: The blood lead level was 0.207±0.105 μmol/L. There was a significant gender difference for zinc (P<0.05) in Group C, and there was also a significant gender difference for copper (P<0.05) and lead (P<0.05) in Group D. Controlling for gender and age, we observed that there was a negative correlation of lead with zinc (r=-0.052, P<0.01), magnesium (r=-0.042, P<0.05) and iron (r=-0.031, P<0.05), respectively. Furthermore, in the children aged 1-7 years old, we also found there was a negative linear correlation of lead with zinc, magnesium and iron, respectively (P<0.01).
CONCLUSION: Blood lead level in children from Beijing was markedly decreased. And deficiency of zinc, magnesium and iron is related to the elevated blood lead level in the children aged 1-7 years.