Intellectual Impairment and Blood Lead Levels

To the Editor: In the light of the report on intellectual impairment and blood lead levels by Canfield et al. (April 17 issue), 1 we reanalyzed data from our prospective cohort study, 2 focusing on 48 children whose blood lead levels never exceeded 10 μg per deciliter at birth or at 6, 12, 18, 24, 5...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe New England journal of medicine Vol. 349; no. 5; pp. 500 - 502
Main Authors Bellinger, David C, Needleman, Herbert L, Eden, Alvin N, Donohoe, Martin T, Canfield, Richard L, Henderson, Charles R, Lanphear, Bruce P
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Massachusetts Medical Society 31.07.2003
Subjects
Confounding Factors (Epidemiology)
Humans
Intelligence - drug effects
Lead - adverse effects
Lead - blood
United States
United States
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Summary:To the Editor: In the light of the report on intellectual impairment and blood lead levels by Canfield et al. (April 17 issue), 1 we reanalyzed data from our prospective cohort study, 2 focusing on 48 children whose blood lead levels never exceeded 10 μg per deciliter at birth or at 6, 12, 18, 24, 57, or 120 months. The IQ at 120 months was inversely related to the lead level at 24 months with adjustment for covariates (P=0.03). Nonparametric smoothing analyses suggested that the inverse association persisted at blood lead levels below 5 μg per deciliter. 3 The blood lead coefficient (–1.56) . . .
ISSN:0028-4793
1533-4406
DOI:10.1056/NEJM200307313490515