What is already known about this topic?: Environmental and occupational lead exposure has generally declined in the past two decades. However, there is no large-scale monitoring of blood lead levels (BLLs) in the Chinese general population.
What is added by this report?: This nationally representative study showed declines of BLLs in all ages of participants; for children aged 3-5 years, down from 78.1 μg/L to 16.9 μg/L, corresponding to 78.4% decrease in the past two decades (2000-2018).
What are the implications for public health practice?: Recommendations for elevated BLLs on screening children at high risk now need to be revisited and updated from 100 μg/L to 50 μg/L in guidelines to conform with the substantial declines in China.
Keywords: China National Human Biomonitoring; blood lead levels; reference value.
Copyright and License information: Editorial Office of CCDCW, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention 2023.