Abstract
Since toys are potential sources of lead contamination for young children, we aim to explore potential correlations between blood-lead-levels (BLLs) of young children and toy-lead contamination using two concurrent investigations. In investigation-1, a total of 2249 children under 7 years old were studied using stratified-cluster-sampling in 6 districts of Shanghai, parents completed questionnaires and children’s whole-blood was collected, and then BLLs were measured using tungsten-atomizer-absorption-spectrophotometer. In investigation-2, a total of 288 toys made of different materials (plastic, wooden, metals, and stuffed cloth) were collected in 6 great supermarkets/toy-stores and toy-lead-levels were measured by a portable X-ray-fluorescence instrument. The geometric-mean of BLLs was 2.02 μg/dL. Adjusting for related confounders, playing with plastic toys was a significant risk factor (β = 0.067, P < 0.05) for BLL-increment. Plastic toys accounted for the highest proportion (154/288, 53.47%) and had the highest rates exceeding toy-lead-standards (the over-standard rates of ≥ 300/600 mg/kg, plastic toys: 3.90%/1.30%; other toys: 0.00%/0.00%). Children’s BLLs in the three (Pudong-suburban, Xuhui, and Yangpu) districts and toy-lead over-standard rates in the neighboring stores were compared, the highest BLLs and over-standard rates were both found in Pudong-suburban district and similar BLLs and over-standard rates were observed between Yangpu and Xuhui districts (Pudong-suburban vs. Xuhui vs. Yangpu: 2.07 vs. 1.55 vs. 1.50 μg/dL for the medians of BLLs, P < 0.001; 1.67% vs. 0.00% vs. 0.00% for the over-standard rates of ≥ 600 mg/kg). This study raised the possibility that lead contamination in toys (especially in low social-economic-status areas) might be associated with BLLs in young children. Lead contamination from plastic toys needs cautions for preventing children from lead exposure.
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Data Availability
The datasets used in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 81974486, 81373016) (to Jian Xu), the Clinical Research Project of Shanghai Municipal Health Commission (202240392) (to Jian Xu), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 81973062) (to Chonghuai Yan), the National Basic Research Program of China (“973” Program, 2012CB525001) (to Chonghuai Yan).
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JP: statistical analyses, writing—original draft. ZG: data collection, statistical analyses. BY: data collection, statistical analyses. YL: investigation, data collection. AJS: investigation, data collection. Shuwen Chen: Data collection. Linda H Nie: Writing – review & editing. Lihua Huang: Data collection, statistical analyses. CY: investigation, project administration, supervision. JX: conceptualization, writing—review and editing, project administration, funding acquisition, supervision.
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The study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Xinhua Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (approval no. XHEC-C-2012-007). Written informed consents were obtained from each child’s parent.
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Peng, J., Gao, Z., Xu, J. et al. Concurrent Assessment on Blood Lead in Young Children and Toy Lead in Shanghai. Expo Health (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-023-00582-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12403-023-00582-9