Prevent Disease.com - Iron Deficiency May Raise Children's Lead Risk



		Iron Deficiency May Raise Children's Lead Risk Excerpt By Amy Norton, Reuters Health NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Iron deficiency may make children more vulnerable to the lead in their homes and environment, researchers report. They found that iron-deficient children show elevated levels of lead in their blood compared with kids with adequate iron stores. This would suggest that improving children's dietary iron intake--and preventing iron deficiency in the first place--could help protect kids from environmental lead, according to Dr. Asa Bradman, the study's lead author. However, he told Reuters Health, such dietary improvements would have to go hand-in-hand with reducing the lead in children's surroundings, particularly the home. ``This study shouldn't be construed as saying we should give kids iron supplements and not get rid of environmental lead,'' said Bradman, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. Both iron deficiency and high blood levels of lead are linked to developmental delays and behavioral problems in children. In the US, both conditions are also significantly more common among lower-income, urban children, and it has been unclear whether they occur independently or are related to each other. However, it is ``biologically plausible'' for iron deficiency to set the stage for higher blood levels of lead, Bradman and his colleagues note in the October issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. They suggest that iron deficiency may affect children's absorption and retention of lead from the environment. But, they note, the evidence of this has been limited to animal studies and some human research. So the researchers attempted to zero in on the connection by looking at iron and lead levels, as well as environmental lead exposure, among more than 300 children aged 1 to 5. The investigators found that, even when accounting for lead in the children's environment, those with iron deficiency had higher lead levels than children with adequate levels of the mineral. Moreover, the biggest difference in blood lead levels was found between low-iron and normal-iron children living in areas with the highest levels of environmental lead. ``In the most-contaminated areas,'' Bradman said, ``the benefit of being iron-sufficient becomes even greater.'' Overall, 14% of the children had lead levels that exceeded the US government ``level of concern''--10 micrograms per deciliter of blood. Lower lead levels were associated with higher family income, use of iron-containing vitamins and day care and school attendance--which, Bradman noted, indicates that these buildings were less likely than homes to have significant lead sources. Indeed, the researchers found that nearly one quarter of homes exceeded the acceptable level for lead in interior paint, and 63% exceeded the standard for exterior paint. Paint chips and dust in older homes are one of the prime sources of children's lead exposure because they can be ingested. Lead is present throughout the environment, existing at varying levels in soil, water and air. Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficit worldwide. Low iron stores can lead to anemia, a condition in which the oxygen-carrying component of the blood is diminished. Some of the iron-rich foods that can prevent deficiency include certain meats and fish, legumes such as lentils and soybeans, dark leafy greens like spinach and iron-fortified cereals and grains. However, Bradman and his colleagues stress, dietary iron alone will not solve the problem of lead exposure in children. No study, Bradman said, has demonstrated that maintaining adequate iron stores prevents lead from building up in the blood. SOURCE: Environmental Health Perspectives 2001;109:1079-1084. Reference Source 89 For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".