Needleman H L
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pennsylvania 15213.
Prev Med. 1994 Sep;23(5):634-7. doi: 10.1006/pmed.1994.1105.
Of all the neurotoxins, lead is the longest known and best understood. Because we know so much about what it does, where it is, and what is required to remove it from the presence of children, lead poisoning should also be one of the easiest diseases to eradicate. Despite this, progress in the primary prevention of childhood lead poisoning has been halting and erratic. In this paper, I outline the rapidly advancing state of knowledge on the epidemiology and toxicology of lead, examine some of the reasons for the gap between what is known and what has been accomplished, and outline the steps toward authentic primary prevention. Eradication of childhood lead poisoning is a realizable goal. Its importance is unquestioned; former Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan declared in 1991 that it is the most serious environmental disease of North American children.
在所有神经毒素中，铅是人们认识时间最长且了解最深入的一种。由于我们对铅的作用、存在位置以及如何使儿童远离铅有诸多了解，铅中毒应该也是最容易根除的疾病之一。尽管如此，儿童铅中毒初级预防方面的进展一直停滞不前且不稳定。在本文中，我概述了铅的流行病学和毒理学方面迅速发展的知识状况，审视了已知与已取得成果之间差距的一些原因，并概述了真正的初级预防步骤。根除儿童铅中毒是一个可实现的目标。其重要性毋庸置疑；美国卫生与公众服务部前部长路易斯·沙利文在1991年宣称，它是北美儿童最严重的环境疾病。
