Vishwanath Prashant, Devegowda Devananda, Prashant Akila, Nayak Narendra, D'souza Vivian, Venkatesh Thuppil, Scott Clark
Department of Biochemistry, JSS Medical College, JSS University, Mysore, India.
Indian J Med Sci. 2012 Nov-Dec;66(11-12):260-6.
Urbanization, rapid industrialization, increased vehicular traffic, and consequent increase in the use of petroleum fuels in India are constantly emitting lead along with other pollutants into the environment. Apart from atmospheric lead, this element is the most widely used in everyday life. Although infants and children are the most susceptible to the effects of lead, adults are also affected to varying degrees and it had ranked as one of the most serious environmental threats to human health. Hence, we must understand the benefits of preventing lead exposure as it reduces treatment costs, increases productivity in industry, and also reduces infant mortality. These are good enough reasons for a nation wide program to prevent lead poisoning.
In the view of elevated blood lead levels (BLL) in majority of the school children in the city of Mangalore, we aimed to identify the potential sources of lead in the environment which would have probably caused the elevated BLL.
More than 600 readings were taken throughout the city of Mangalore using X-ray fluorimeter.
Our results showed that there were elevated levels of lead in the environment surrounding the battery repair shops, battery recyclers, automotive workshops, and tyre retreaders, but interestingly, the soil around the petrol bunks did not show elevated levels of lead. Among the paints, the yellow paint showed high levels of lead.
Similar surveys would be useful elsewhere in India and in other developing countries in order to identify the potential sources of lead and to prevent lead poisoning.
城市化、快速工业化、车辆交通增加以及印度石油燃料使用量随之增加，导致铅和其他污染物不断排放到环境中。除了大气中的铅，这种元素在日常生活中使用最为广泛。尽管婴儿和儿童最易受铅影响，但成年人也会受到不同程度的影响，铅已被列为对人类健康最严重的环境威胁之一。因此，我们必须认识到预防铅暴露的益处，因为它能降低治疗成本、提高工业生产力，还能降低婴儿死亡率。这些充分理由足以开展一项全国性的预防铅中毒计划。
鉴于芒格洛尔市大多数在校儿童血铅水平升高，我们旨在确定环境中可能导致血铅水平升高的潜在铅源。
使用X射线荧光计在芒格洛尔市进行了600多次测量。
我们的结果表明，电池维修店、电池回收商、汽车维修店和翻新轮胎店周围环境中的铅含量升高，但有趣的是，加油站周围的土壤中铅含量并未升高。在油漆中，黄色油漆的铅含量较高。
类似的调查在印度其他地区和其他发展中国家将有助于确定潜在的铅源并预防铅中毒。
