A U.S. Lead Exposure Hotspots Analysis

• Published in: Environmental science & technology Vol. 58; no. 7; pp. 3311 - 3321
• Main Authors: Zartarian, Valerie G., Xue, Jianping, Poulakos, Antonios G., Tornero-Velez, Rogelio, Stanek, Lindsay W., Snyder, Emily, Helms Garrison, Veronica, Egan, Kathryn, Courtney, Joseph G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 09.02.2024
• Subjects: Blood; Blood levels; Census; Cluster analysis; Data Science; Exposure; Public health; Research hot spots; Risk; Statistical methods; United States > US; Ohio; Michigan; metals; indices; mapping; biomonitoring; children’s health; environmental health
• ISSN: 0013-936X; 1520-5851; 1520-5851
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c07881

To identify U.S. lead exposure risk hotspots, we expanded upon geospatial statistical methods from a published Michigan case study. The evaluation of identified hotspots using five lead indices, based on housing age and sociodemographic data, showed moderate-to-substantial agreement with state-identified higher-risk locations from nine public health department reports (45–78%) and with hotspots of children’s blood lead data from Michigan and Ohio (e.g., Cohen’s kappa scores of 0.49–0.63). Applying geospatial cluster analysis and 80th–100th percentile methods to the lead indices, the number of U.S. census tracts ranged from ∼8% (intersection of indices) to ∼41% (combination of indices). Analyses of the number of children <6 years old living in those census tracts revealed the states (e.g., Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California, Texas) and counties with highest potential lead exposure risk. Results support use of available lead indices as surrogates to identify locations in the absence of consistent, complete blood lead level (BLL) data across the United States. Ground-truthing with local knowledge, additional BLL data, and environmental data is needed to improve identification and analysis of lead exposure and BLL hotspots for interventions. While the science evolves, these screening results can inform “deeper dive” analyses for targeting lead actions.