Assessment of Blood Lead Level of School Children in 10 Cities of India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Divas Kumar; Shally Awasthi; Abbas Ali Mahdi; Shweta Singh; Anuj Kumar Pandey; Girdhar G Agarwal; Thekkumkara Surendran Anish; Somashekar A R; Sonali Kar; Suma Nair; Joseph L Mathew; Mushtaq A Bhat; B N Mahanta; Kuldeep Singh; C M Singh

doi:10.1007/s12098-023-04864-7

Assessment of Blood Lead Level of School Children in 10 Cities of India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Indian J Pediatr. 2023 Nov 3. doi: 10.1007/s12098-023-04864-7. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
² Department of Pediatrics, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. shally07@gmail.com.
³ Department of Biochemistry, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
⁵ Department of Statistics, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
⁶ Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.
⁷ Department of Pediatrics, M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
⁸ Department of Community Medicine, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India.
⁹ School of Public Health, DY Patil Deemed to be University, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
¹⁰ Department of Pediatric Medicine, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Chandigarh, India.
¹¹ Department of Pediatrics, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India.
¹² Department of Medicine, Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh, Assam, India.
¹³ Department of Pediatrics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.
¹⁴ Department of Community & Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, Bihar, India.

PMID: 37919485
DOI: 10.1007/s12098-023-04864-7

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the blood lead level (BLL) of school children in 10 cities of India.

Methods: This multi-centric cross-sectional study enrolled participants from randomly selected schools. Data on demographic details, socioeconomic status (SES) and anthropometric indicators was collected. Samples were collected for assessment of lead level in blood. Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry technique was used to assess BLL.

Results: From April 2019 through February 2020, 2247 participants were recruited from sixty schools (62.6% government schools) with equal gender distribution. The overall median (interquartile range) BLL was 8.8 (4.8, 16.4) µg/dl. The highest median (interquartile range) BLL was in Manipal 30.6 (23.0, 46.7) and lowest in Dibrugarh 4.8 (3.2, 7.0). Overall, 82.5% of participants had BLL above ≤4 µg/dl. Significant negative correlation was observed between BLL and SES (correlation= -0.24, p <0.001), anthropometric indicators (correlation= -0.11, p <0.001), hemoglobin level (correlation= -0.045, p = 0.03) and multivariate regression model showed association with gender, SES and anthropometric indicators.

Conclusions: BLL are elevated in urban school going children and there is intercity variation. Hence, urgent focus is needed to reduce exposure to lead in India.

Keywords: Blood lead level; India; Lead toxicity; School age children.

Grants and funding

212332/Hindustan Unilever Limited