Prenatal lead exposure in Israel: an international comparison

Background: Prenatal lead exposure (umbilical cord blood lead concentration >10 (mu g/dl) may impair cognitive development. Childhood lead poisoning i s infrequent in Israel, and there are no data on lead exposure in immigrant s to Israel from the former Soviet Union. Objectives: To evaluate prenatal blood lead concentrations in Israeli newbo rns whose mothers were born in Israel and in those whose mothers recently i mmigrated from Russia, and to compare data of prenatal lead exposure in Isr ael with those reported from other countries Methods: We compared the UCBLC of 35 newborns of new immigrants from Russia with a group of 35 newborns whose mothers were born in Israel; Venous BLC was also measured in 50 mothers. Data are compared with similar reports on prenatal lead exposure internationally. Results: The UCBLC in all 70 newborns (mean+/-SD) was 3.53+/-1.6 mu g/dl, a nd mothers' BLC (mean+/-SD) was 3.90+/-1.39 mu g/dl. UCBLC and BLC in the 5 0 mother-newborn pairs correlated (r=0.36, P<0.01. All newborns except one had UCBLC <8.0 mu g/dl. There was no significant difference between UCBLC i n the tu a groups. Conclusions: Prenatal lead exposure among the study subjects in both groups was low. In this sample the newborns of mothers born in Israel and those w hose mothers recently immigrated from Russia were not found to be at risk f or lead poisoning. Prenatal lead exposure in this sample was low compared t o that reported from various parts of the world.