Assessment of soil lead exposure in children in Shenyang, China

Soil lead pollution is serious in Shenyang. Approximately 15.25% of the samples were above China Environment Protection Agency guideline concentration for soil Pb to protect human from health risk (350 mg kg(-1)). The soil lead mainly comes from industry emission and automobile exhaust. Bioacessibility varied among use scenarios. Children, who ingested soil from industrial area, public parks, kindergarten playground. and commercial area, are more susceptible to soil lead toxicity. The amount of Pb mobilized from soil into ingestion juice was influenced by contamination level, use scenario type, Pb phase and some other factors not investigated. Compared to children of 3 years old, children of 4-5 years old are more likely to demonstrate the significant relationship between soil lead bioaccessibility and blood lead as their behaviors place them at greatest risk of soil lead toxicity, and their blood lead levels are more likely to represent recent exposure. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.