Blood lead levels in children from Sardinian villages at high risk of environmental crisis |
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Authors: | Sanna E Liguori A Palmas L Floris G |
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Institution: | (1) Dipartimento di Biologia Sperimentale, Sezione di Scienze Antropologische, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria, SS 554 (km 4.5), 09042 Monserrato (CA), Italy |
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Abstract: | This study reports blood lead levels measured in 1998 in children from three Sardinian villages: Portoscuso, Sant'Antioco,
and Sestu. Portoscuso is located about 2 km from one of the most important industrial complexes in Sardinia. Sant'Antioco,
together with the villages of Carbonia, Gonnesa, Portoscuso and San Giovanni Suergiu, is in the Sulcis-Iglesiente zone, defined
as an “area of high risk of environmental crisis” on the basis of the Decree of the Italian Council of Ministers dated November
30, 1990. Sestu, a semi-urban centre about 10 km from Cagliari (the island's capital), can be considered not exposed to lead
pollution. Blood lead concentration was determined in heparinized venous blood samples by graphite furnace atomic absorption
spectrophotometry. Comparing the mean blood lead levels for the boys of Portoscuso measured in 1993 (9.27 μg/dl) and 1998
(11.30 μg/dl), we found an increase of 21.90%, whereas the mean values for the girls are practically identical in 1993 (7.35
μg/dl) and 1998 (7.39 μg/dl). In contrast, in the boys and girls of Sestu, the mean blood lead levels decrease from 1993 to
1998 by 55.62% and 29.09% respectively (from 6.71 μg/dl to 4.09 μg/dl in the boys; from 4.71 μg/dl to 3.34 μg/dl in the girls).
In the Sant'Antioco children, we found a 52.65% decrease from 1987 (8.30 μg/dl reported for a sample not subdivided by sex))
to 1998 (3.93 μg/dl for males and females combined). Our results confirm the findings of previous investigations of blood
lead levels in children from Sardinian villages with different environmental risks of lead pollution: the children of Portoscuso
present higher blood lead levels than other groups of Sardinian children. |
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Keywords: | Blood lead children Sardinia |
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