Contribution of lead in dust to children's blood lead.

The importance of urban dust as a source of lead for young children is still disputed. Although blood-lead data from various population surveys usually show a peak concentration in early childhood, there is evidence that such a peak is small or absent altogether in children without much access to the general environment. An examination of those studies where groups of people in regions of low and high lead contamination have been compared shows that the child/adult blood-lead ratio is almost always enhanced in the more exposed groups. This implies a route of lead uptake which is important for children but less so for adults, and it is likely that this route is the dust-hand-mouth one. There are sufficient data to suggest a quantitative relationship between raised levels of blood lead and lead in dust. There is a strong case for a lead-in-dust standard but some will probably remain unpersuaded unless or until there are reliable data for blood lead and environmental lead involving matched groups of young people from urban and rural areas.