Lead-glazed ceramic ware and blood lead levels of children in the City of Oaxaca, Mexico

Although Mexico substantially reduced use of leaded gasoline during the 199 0s, lead-glazed pottery remains a significant source of population exposure . Most previous studies of lead in nonoccupationally exposed groups in Mexi co have been conducted in the Mexico City metropolitan area. Oaxaca, a poor southern state of Mexico, has a centuries-old tradition of use of low temp erature lead-glazed ceramic ware manufactured mainly by small family busine sses. We measured blood lead levels in 220 8-10-y-old children (i.e., not f rom pottery-making families) who were students in the innercity of Oaxaca a nd in the mothers of all children. The geometric mean blood lead level of t he children was 10.5 mu g/dl (+7.0/-4.3 mu g/dl standard deviation; range 1 .3-35.5 mu g/dl). The corresponding mean value for the mothers was 13.4 (+9 .0/-5.4 mu g/dl standard deviation; range = 2.8-45.3 mu g/dl). We used cuto ffs that were greater than or equal to 10 mu g/dl, 20 mu g/dl, and 30 mu g/ dl, and we determined that 54.9%, 10.3%, and 3.0% of the children were at o r above the respective criteria. We accounted for 25.2% of the variance in blood lead levels of the children, using maternal responses to a questionna ire that assessed possible lead sources in a linear multiple-regression mod el. The most important factors related to lead levels were family use of le ad-glazed pottery, use of animal fat in cooking, and family income. The add ition of maternal blood lead level to the model increased accounted varianc e in blood lead to 48.0%. In logistic-regression modeling of children's blo od lead levels, we used a cutoff of greater than or equal to 10 mu g/dl, an d we found that use of lead-glazed pottery was the most important of all qu estionnaire items that were predictive of blood lead levels (odds ratio = 2 .98). In Oaxaca, as is the case elsewhere in Mexico, lead-glazed ceramic wa re remains a significant risk factor for elevated blood lead levels in chil dren.