Even small levels of lead exposure may damage children’s kidneys

Parents, you will want to heed this warning  about lead. You can find more information about preventing lead poisoning in children, by going to the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) web site.

The Los Angeles Times (3/8, Worth) reports that, according to a study published in January in the Archives of Internal Medicine, “even small levels of lead exposure may be damaging to children’s kidneys.” After examining “the records of 769 healthy youth ages 12 to 20 with average blood lead levels of 1.5 micrograms per deciliter (well below the 10 microgram ‘threshold’ of concern per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention),” investigators discovered that “children with levels of just 2.9 micrograms per deciliters had worse kidney function than those with lower levels.” In fact, “with each doubling of lead levels, the filtration capacity dropped.”