What you don't know about lead poisoning can hurt you

Stories about lead poisoning could be “old news,” since in the last 30 years we’ve dramatically lowered the amount of lead we’re exposed to. We took lead out of gasoline, out of the solder in canned foods and out of paints and we don’t put lead in the pipes of our houses anymore, says Brian Schwartz of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. As a result, “the average level of lead in blood in this country has declined over the last 30 years.” That’s the good news!

“The bad news,” says Howard Hu of the Harvard school of Public Health, “is that if you’re older than 45, chances are you accumulated quite a bit of lead in your bones when you were younger, even if he never worked in an industrial job, and you may be paying a steep health price for it! Our studies of men in the Boston area show that lead accelerates and worsens some of the usual processes and diseases associated with aging. The more lead accumulates in your bones, the higher your risk for high blood pressure, accelerated declines in kidney and brain function and for cataracts.”

Brian Schwartz, professor of environmental health science at Johns Hopkins University, is tracking lead levels in 1,000 men and women in their 50s, 60s, and 70s in his Baltimore Memory Study. Preliminary results are that from all socioeconomic and racial groups, these people may suffer, as determined by the Normative Aging Study:

1) Increased risk of hypertension — men with the highest level of lead in their bones are nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure.

2) Increased amounts of cataracts — men with the most lead in their tibias are three times more likely to develop cataracts than men with less lead.

3) The kidney’s ability to filter toxins from the body deteriorated earlier and faster in men with higher levels of lead in their blood.

4) Lead accelerates declines in memory and mental abilities.

So how do you get tested and what can you do about this? Most lead today comes from drinking water, which should less than 15 ppb, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s mandate. A good preventative measure is to find out if your water pipes are lead. You can get testing kits on the Internet or by calling the Local Water District. Don’t bother trying to get tested for lead in your bones, since the instruments that measure lead levels in bone are currently available only to researchers.

Also, talk with your doctor or research in the library or on the Internet for ways to help lessen the effects of lead poisoning.

Always check with your physician before making changes in your diet or environment. E-mail me with your suggestions, questions and comments on Healthy Living at [email protected].