Health Consultation: Exposure Investigation. Biological Testing for Exposure to Lead and Arsenic Near Colorado Smelter, Pueblo, Colorado, September 10, 2015.

摘要

The Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and Pueblo City County Health Department (PCCHD) conducted an Exposure Investigation (EI) in Pueblo, Colorado in September and November 2013. At the request of PCCHD, ATSDR collected blood and urine samples from participants from the area ? mile from the Pueblo smelter and analyzed the samples for lead (in blood) and arsenic (in urine). Children under 6 years of age were tested for blood lead only and participants 6 years and older were tested for both, blood lead and urinary arsenic. Arsenic is rapidly metabolized and excreted from the body within 2–3 days of exposure; thus, urinary arsenic testing measures only recent exposures. Therefore, a urine sample needs to be collected soon after exposure has occurred, for this reason ATSDR conducted two rounds of urine arsenic testing to increase the likelihood of finding arsenic exposures.