An Executive Summary to My M.S. Practicum in Environmental Science.

On By Shaaban Fundi, Ph.D.In Education

A Review of the Effectiveness of Lead Abatement Strategies in Reducing Lead Exposure Among Children.

By Shaaban Kitindi Fundi,

Executive Summary

Despite the growing recognition of lead abatement as an intervention for reducing the risk of lead exposure to children, very few scientists have attempted to review data on its effectiveness. This study reviews the current information on residential lead abatement procedures in order to determine whether these abatement strategies are an effective method to prevent lead exposure in children, as measured by blood lead levels.

A standardized protocol for searching, acquiring, and extracting study data and synthesizing results across studies was used. The criteria for studies to be included in the review were: (1) includes children under the age of 6 years, (2) conducted in the United States, (3) published between January 1990 and March 2004, and (4) have a pre/post or multi arm study design. Nineteen studies were found that met the inclusion criteria.

Three of the nineteen identified studies looked at soil abatement, four looked at paint abatement, ten looked at dust abatement, and two studies used a mixture of soil and dust abatement. No studies looking at the effect of monitoring tap water for lead on children’s lead exposure were identified in this review. The studies varied greatly in terms of their sample size, study design, and methods of data collection.

A review of studies looking at the effectiveness of residential lead abatement strategies at reducing blood lead levels in children found mixed results. Soil abatement strategies appear to be most effective when the soil concentration is quite high (>1000ppm) and when children’s exposure to lead is primarily through contaminated soil and not household dust.

The studies regarding lead paint abatement also show mixed results. Amitai, et al. found that doing abatement while children were living in the home actually caused a short term increase in mean blood lead levels. For this reason, it may be more effective to do primary prevention by abating homes before occupancy than to wait to do abatement after the children have already been exposed. There is also evidence that lead paint abatement may be most effective for children with very high lead blood levels (>25μg/dL) suggesting that this strategy may make more sense as a targeted intervention.

Finally, the data suggest that residential dust abatement strategies are most effective when done multiple times as household dust tends to re-accumulate after short periods of time. In addition, carpets and upholstery remain important reservoirs for lead exposure and new techniques need to be developed to better clean these potential sources of lead exposure.

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21 thoughts on “An Executive Summary to My M.S. Practicum in Environmental Science.”

  1. lilia cruz

    I never actually thought lead was so harmful to us humans. It can be deadly and some people don’t realize it. People or scientest need to think of ways to not use as much lead in house hold iteams. So we can protect our kids

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  3. Miriam Jackson

    I think that it is very important to learn about thing, no matter how much it might not seem to matter. Because what if later, or someplace you visit, lead poising is a big deal?

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  4. Crsitian Sanchez

    i didn’t know that lead was that bad until i read this article. Now I know that people can be killed by lead. It would be bad if any of my friends had lead poisoning.

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  5. Josh Galerstein

    I learned of the harmful(and deadly) effects of lead poisoning and that we need to stay careful of what we touch and what products we buy to see if they contain paint with lead. To stay clean and make sure that the products we buy are safe of the harm this could cause, especially for children.

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  6. sean davis the kid with too much rim make it rid too hard

    Defiantly a chill article couldnt agree more that kid nick. Lead poisoning is defiantly an underlooked topic and needs to be a more focused upon. lots of household products and even toys contain lead which is a very dangerous element that can effect one in many ways. I think more products should not use lead and use a biproduct of lead to be safe

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  8. Chase Brower

    Before I read this all that I knew about lead was that it is heavy. Now I know that lead can kill all of us!!! I think that it would be horrible if my child was killed or even got sick because of lead poisoning.

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  11. Gloria Chan

    I think this is a good article about child health. Lead really does affect child lots because we won’t know is there have more function on lead. Parents should spend more time to get their eyes to their child.

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  13. Rikki Raiford

    I think that lead abatement should be checked before a child has moved into the house . Lead can cause dangerous health issues and should not be taken lightly when dealing with children . I think lead should be prohibited to even appear in houses and such toys as to kids can get to it rather quickly .

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  14. Savon Harris

    I learned that lead is obviously very important to people. To me lead doesn’t really affect you that much so I’m not worried about it. I believe there are bigger things to worry about but i could be wrong.

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  15. Ashley Smith

    I think that this is a very effective experiment to practice. I think it is very important to keep things safe from lead especially for children sake because their at risk for pretty much any and everything. I remember when my mom told me a story of when I was little and i was eating the paint off the wall not knowing that it had lead in it. She said she took me to the doctor and I was fine but you also have to think that that was very dangerous because i could’ve gotten very sick. it’s always important to keep things safe from danger so we can all stay healthy and strong.

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  16. This is what I learned: Why does it matter so much? Lead exposure cannot be fully disqualified. The thing that angered me is the last paragraph, “new techniques need to be developed to better clean these potential sources of lead exposure.” Really? Why is everybody so focused on how clean something should be? Is there nothing else to worry about? Parents or adults seem to be SO anal about things being cleaned up while it really doesn’t matter. There was society back then who didn’t dust abatement or lead abatement and I think they turned out rather fine.

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