Temporal transition trends of cord blood lead levels in various human development index countries and in the Taipei metropolitan area

Yaw-Huei Hwang; Hui-Chu Wu; Ming-Kwang Shyu; Chien-Nan Lee; Shin-Yu Lin; Pau-Chung Chen; Hung-Yi Chuang; Pei-Wen Lin; Tso-Hsien Wu; Yen-Tzu Chen

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121900

Temporal transition trends of cord blood lead levels in various human development index countries and in the Taipei metropolitan area

Environ Pollut. 2023 Sep 1:332:121900. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121900. Epub 2023 May 25.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC; Master of Public Health Program, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address: yhhwang@ntu.edu.tw.
² Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
³ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
⁴ Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC; Department of Public Health, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC; Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taiwan, ROC; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan, ROC.
⁵ Department of Public Health and Environmental Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan, ROC; Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Taiwan, ROC.

PMID: 37244535
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121900

Abstract

Since low-level lead exposure is still of concern for neonates, it is worth further characterizing the temporal transition trends of cord blood lead levels (CBLLs) globally and locally in Taipei, Taiwan, after the cessation of leaded gasoline use. A literature review on CBLLs around the world was performed by searching three databanks, i.e., PubMed, Google Scholar and Web of Science, with the search keywords "cord blood" combined with "lead" or "Pb" for studies published from 1975 to May 2021. In total, 66 articles were included. Linear regressions for the reciprocal of sample size weighed CBLLs against calendar year presented a high r² value (0.722) for the very high Human Development Index (HDI) countries and a moderate r² value (0.308) for the combined high and medium HDI countries. The predicted CBLLs in 2030 and 2040 were 6.92 (95% CI: 6.02-7.81) μg/L and 5.85 (95% CI: 5.04-6.66) μg/L, respectively, for the very high HDI countries and 13.10 (95% CI: 7.12-19.09) μg/L and 10.63 (95% CI: 5.37-15.89) μg/L, respectively, for the combined high and medium HDI countries. To characterize the CBLL transitions in the Great Taipei metropolitan area, data from five studies conducted from 1985 to 2018 were employed. Although the results of the early four studies indicated that the Great Taipei metropolitan area did not reach the pace in CBLL reduction among the very high HDI countries, the CBLLs of the latest study during 2016-2018 were pretty low (8.1 ± 4.5 μg/L), approximately 3 years in advance of the very high HDI countries as one group to reach this low CBLL. In conclusion, further effective reduction in environmental lead exposure is challenging and must be based on the efforts from the aspects reflected by the HDI index compositions, i.e., economics, education and health, mostly implying health disparity and inequality.

Keywords: Cord blood; Human development index; Lead; Taipei; Transition.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Developing Countries
Educational Status
Environmental Exposure* / analysis
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Lead* / analysis
Taiwan

Substances

Lead