Management of children with slightly elevated blood lead levels.

Objective. To determine whether counseling of parents reduced blood lead levels in their young children. Participants and methods. A lead exposure study was conducted in the vicinity of a defunct lead smelter. A total of 827 volunteers including 490 children younger than 6 years participated in the study. The mean venous blood lead level in the 490 children was 0.33 μmol/L (6.9 μg/dL), with a range of 0.03 to 1.94 μmol/L (0.7 to 40.2 μg/dL). A total of 78 (16%) children had blood lead levels ≥0.48 μmol/L (10 μg/dL). However, only 5 (1%) of the children had blood lead levels of ≥1.21 μmol/L (25 μg/dL). The blood lead levels in this community were much lower than levels reported in earlier studies in many areas of the United States, when lead levels in air and in food were higher