Epidemiological study of blood lead levels of children and adolescents living in Campania, Italy

The aim of the present study is to evaluate blood lead levels (PbB) in a gr oup of 500 (245 M, 255 F) children and adolescents of Campania (Italy) aged from 0.197 to 16.915 years, 269 (136 M, 133 F) of whom lived in urban zone s and 231 (109 M, 123 F) in rural zones. PbB was assayed by electrothermal atomic absorption spectroscopy. The parents of the examined subjects childr en were interviewed about common risk factors for lead exposure using a sta ndardized questionnaire. The PbB of children living in urban zones were sig nificantly higher than the PbB of those living in rural zones (60.0+/-3.0 m g/L. rs. 40.0+/-2.0 mg/L, p<0.001). A PbB higher than 100 mg/L was found in 27 children (5.4%). We observed a significant correlation between age and PbB (p<0.001, r = 0.529). Our data regarding children and adolescents demon strate that the prevalence of PbB higher than 100 mg/L is greater in childr en living in urban areas (6.89%) than in subjects Living in rural areas (3. 89%). The findings can be explained by the higher presence of risk factors of Pb exposure in urban areas.. Our data, if compared with those of previou s studies concerning children of Campania, show a clear decrease of PbB. Th e con-elation that we found between age and PbB indicates that long-term ex posure at low doses more than a more intensive but short-term exposure seem s to be important for the increase of blood lead levels.