Childhood Blood Lead Level

Childhood Blood lead Level:

Introduction:

This paper discusses the trends in blood lead level in children aged below 6 years in the US, the paper compares the percentage number of children whose blood lead level is elevated in Boston, north Dorchester and the US, the report indicates the percentage number of children with elevated blood lead levels greater than 10 mcg/dl and the percentage number of children whose elevated blood lead level is greater than 25 mcg/dl. The paper highlights the trend in the number of children whose blood lead level is elevated and also the differences in these numbers across regions.

Childhood Blood lead levels:

The following is the analysis of the data retrieved from http://www.cityofboston.gov/TridionImag es/U_LeadTrends_9-02_33c_tcm1-1903.pdf.

The chart indicates childhood blood lead levels for the year 1992 to 2001; data shows that there has been a decline in the percentage number of children with alleviated blood lead levels:

From the above chart it is evident that the percentage number of those whose blood lead level was greater than 10 mcg/dl has declined over the years, for the period 1992 to 1994 the level declined at a high rate, this rate slowed in the period 1994 to 1997 and in the period 1997 to 2001 the percentage declined at a high rate.

Childhood Blood lead Level

It is also evident that for the period 1992 to 2001 the number of children under the age of 6 years whose blood lead level was greater than 25mcg/dl also declined from 1.2% in 1992 to 0.1% in 2001.

North Dorchester and Boston Blood lead levels:

This section compares Boston and North Dorchester childhood blood lead levels; the following chart summarizes the trends for the period 1992 to 2001:

From the above chart it is evident that percentage of children whose childhood blood lead is elevated (>10mcg/dl) in north Dorchester is higher than the percentage of children whose childhood blood lead is elevated (>10mcg/dl) in Boston for the period, however it is evident that the percentage of children under the age of 6 years whose blood lead level was elevated declined in the period 1992 to 2001.

For the period 1992 to 1996 the percentage number of children whose blood lead level was elevated in North Dorchester declined at a high rate but this rate of decrease was lower in the period 1996 to 1997, however the rate of decrease increased for the period 1997 to 2001.

US childhood blood lead levels:

Recent data shows that the number of children whose blood lead levels is elevated has declined in the United States, data indicating the percentage number of children whose blood lead level is elevated in the US for the period 1997 to 2007 was retrieved from http://www.cdc. gov/nceh/lead/data/index.htm

, and the following chart summarizes the results:

Childhood Blood lead Level

The above chart shows that for the period 1997 to 2006 the number of children whose blood lead levels was elevated declined and also has been lower than 1%, it is evident that in the US the percentage number of children whose blood lead level is elevated has declined at a decreasing rate in the period 1997 to 2006.

US and Boston:

The following chart compared the percentage number of children in Boston and the US whose blood lead level is elevated for the period 1997 to 2006, data was retrieved from http://www.bp hc.org/about/Documents/Health%20of%20Boston%202008.pdf

From the above chart it is evident that the percentage number of children whose blood lead level was elevated has remained relatively high compared to the percentage number in the US, however the percentage number of children has declined over the period 1997 to 2006 and is expected to decline in future.

Major findings:

The above discussion highlights the trends in the percentage number of children whose blood lead level is elevated, one major finding is that the percentage number of children whose childhood blood lead level has been declining in the last few years, this is evident where the percentage number of children whose blood lead level is elevated in Boston declined from 23% in 1992 to 2% in 2006, in the US the number declined from 0.53% in 1997 to 0.17% in 2006, also in north Dorchester the number declined from 32% in 1992 to 6% in 2001.

Childhood Blood lead Level

Another finding is that there are some regions with higher number of children whose blood lead level is elevated, from the analysis it is evident that in 1992 the number of children whose blood lead level was elevated in Boston amounted to 23% while in North Dorchester the value was 32%, also in 2001 Boston value was 4.6% while North Dorchester value was 6.88%. This means that some regions have a higher number of children who are at risk than other regions.

Finally it is evident that the percentage number of children whose blood lead level is elevated is greater in Boston and North Dorchester than the average level for the whole nation. This means that these regions are most affected by this environmental problem and therefore policy measures should be put in place to reduce the number of children whose blood lead level is elevated.

Conclusion:

From the above it is evident that the percentage number of children whose blood lead level is elevated has been declined in the discussed regions in the US, this means that policy measures put in place have been effective in reducing the number of cases where children have elevated blood lead levels. However it is evident that some regions have a higher percentage number of children whose blood lead level is elevated and this means that these regions should implement policies that reduce lead in the environment in order to reach the nations average level.

References:

November, from < http://www.bphc.org/about/Documents/Health%20of%20Boston%202008.pdf

>

Childhood Blood lead Level

November, from < http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/data/state/madata.htm >

November, from < http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/data/index.htm

November, from < http://www.cityofboston.gov/TridionImages/U_LeadTrends_9-02_33c_tcm1-1 903.pdf

November, from < http://matracking.ehs.state.ma.us/Health_Data/Childhood_Blood_Lead_Lev

els.html#                                             >

November, from < http://www.hria.org/services/environmental-health.html >