Abstract
Blood lead levels (BLLs) have been decreasing worldwide for decades. However, systematic reviews and quantitative syntheses of BLLs in electronic waste (e-waste)-exposed children are lacking. To summarize temporal trend of BLLs among children in e-waste-recycling areas. Fifty-one studies met the inclusion criteria and included participants from six countries. Meta-analysis was performed using the random-effects model. Results showed that among e-waste-exposed children, the total geometric mean (GM) BLL was 7.54 μg/dL (95% CI: 6.77, 8.31). Children’s BLLs displayed a decreasing temporal trend, from 11.77 μg/dL in phase I (2004–2006) to 4.63 μg/dL in phase V (2016–2018). Almost 95% of eligible studies found that children exposed to e-waste had significantly higher BLLs than reference groups. The difference of children’s BLLs between the exposure group and the reference group was from 6.60 μg/dL (95% CI: 6.14, 7.05) in 2004 to 1.99 μg/dL (95% CI: 1.61, 2.36) in 2018. For subgroup analyses, except for Dhaka and Montevideo, the BLLs of children from Guiyu in the same survey year were higher than those of children from other regions. Our findings indicate that the gap between BLLs of children exposed to e-waste and those of reference group children is closing, and we appeal that the critical value for blood lead poisoning in children should be lowered in key e-waste-dismantling areas of developing countries, such as Guiyu.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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We would like to thank Dr. Nick Webber for his constructive comments and English language editing.
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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21876065).
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The authors’ responsibilities were as follows—Jintao Huang: writing—original draft, performed the systematic literature search and extracted the data, data curation and analysis. Zhijun Zeng: writing—review and editing, validation. Xijin Xu: supervision, writing—reviewing and editing. Qianwen Tian: performed the systematic literature search and extracted the data. Keyang Zheng: performed the systematic literature search and checked the data. Xia Huo: conceptualization, investigation, supervision, funding acquisition, writing—reviewing and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Huang, J., Zeng, Z., Xu, X. et al. Blood lead levels of children exposed to e-waste: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 64860–64871 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27114-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27114-x