Blood lead level and its relationship to certain essential elements in the children aged 0 to 14 years from Beijing, China

Objective: To investigate blood lead level and its relationship to copper, zinc, calcium, magnesium and iron in the children aged 0 to 14 years old from Beijing, China. Methods: We classified 3181 children into one of the four groups: Group A (n = 783, <1 year old); Group B (n = 1538,1-3 years old); Group C (n = 443,3-7 years old); and, Group D (n = 417,7-14 years old). All these metal elements were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. Results: The blood lead level was 0.207 +/- 0.105 mu mol/L. There was a significant gender difference for zinc (P<0.05) in Group C, and there was also a significant gender difference for copper (P<0.05) and lead (P<0.05) in Group D. Controlling for gender and age, we observed that there was a negative correlation of lead with zinc (r= -0.052, P<0.01), magnesium (r= -0.042, P<0.05) and iron (r= -0.031, P<0.05), respectively. Furthermore, in the children aged 1-7 years old, we also found there was a negative linear correlation of lead with zinc, magnesium and iron, respectively (P<0.01). Conclusion: Blood lead level in children from Beijing was markedly decreased. And deficiency of zinc, magnesium and iron is related to the elevated blood lead level in the children aged 1-7 years. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.