Flint children's blood lead levels hit all-time low — study

摘要

A study today finds that blood lead levels in the young children of Flint, Mich., reached an all-time low in 2016, a good sign for lead abatement efforts following the city's water contamination crisis. "I think it's fantastic news, actually," said Hernan Gomez, the lead author of the study, which was published in The Journal of Pediatrics. The study looked at nearly 16,000 blood samples from children up to age 5 from 2006 to 2016. The percentage of children with blood lead levels that would call for intervention under federal guidelines fell from 11.8 percent at the beginning of the time frame to 3.2 percent. The mean amount of lead in the samples fell to 1.15 microgram per deciliter in 2016 from 2.33 in 2006. During the 2014-15 period, blood lead levels increased.