Letters
Environmental health Statistics
Volume 199 - Issue 5

Eliminating childhood lead toxicity in Australia: a call to lower the intervention level

Authors:  Mark P Taylor, Bruce P Lanphear and Chris Winder

Med J Aust 2013; 199 (5): 323-324. || doi: 10.5694/mja13.10261
Published online: 2 September 2013
In reply: In epidemiology, the weight-of-evidence approach is useful for reaching general conclusions, whereas details from selected studies are useful for understanding nuances. This is particularly important when evidence from human and experimental research is consistent across multiple studies and in populations with different characteristics, including Australia.1-3 There will always be limitations and unmeasured confounders, but, ultimately, we can rely on controlled laboratory studies which ...
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In reply: In epidemiology, the weight-of-evidence approach is useful for reaching general conclusions, whereas details from selected studies are useful for understanding nuances. This is particularly important when evidence from human and experimental research is consistent across multiple studies and in populations with different characteristics, including Australia.1-3 There will always be limitations and unmeasured confounders, but, ultimately, we can rely on controlled laboratory studies which show that lead is toxic, even at picomolar concentrations.1,4

Recent independent and expert scientific reviews — including reviews from the World Health Organization, Germany’s Human Biomonitoring Commission and US national agencies such as the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Toxicology Program and Environmental Protection Agency — have issued recommendations to reduce the public health risks of lead exposure. A February 2013 report by Health Canada confirms that effects have been associated with blood lead levels as low as 1–2 μg/dL.5 These reviews indicate that the current National Health and Medical Research Council guideline for lead (10 μg/dL) is too high and should be revised downwards.

Authors

  • Mark P Taylor1
  • Bruce P Lanphear2
  • Chris Winder3
  • 1. Faculty of Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW.
  • 2. BC Children’s Hospital, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
  • 3. Faculty of Business, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, NSW.

Correspondence: chris.winder@acu.edu.au

Competing interests

No relevant disclosures.

References

View this article on Wiley Online Library

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