This article is original by Translational Medicine Network. Please indicate the source for reprinting.
Author: Tiffany
Introduction: Recently, a large-scale study surprisingly found that nearly 550,000 children in the United States contain blood. lead. Although the problem of lead pollution has improved compared to many years ago, it still endangers people’s health and is closely related to people’s lives, because lead exists in every environment...
Lead is a heavy metal, If the lead in the human body exceeds the standard, it will have an impact on various systems throughout the body. Lead will affect the hematopoietic system of , affect the synthesis of hemoglobin, and may also induce hemolysis of , which may lead to anemia in patients. Lead also has an important effect on the development of the nervous system. It can also affect the release of the neurotransmitter , leading to a series of neuropsychiatric symptoms. It also has great destructive power for the mucosa of the digestive system. It will cause inflammatory changes in the mucosa of the digestive system. Many patients with lead poisoning will have atrophic gastritis, etc., changes in the gastrointestinal mucosa . The damage to the kidney can be manifested as the atrophy of renal tubules , and the fibrosis of renal interstitium . The impact on the cardiovascular system may be manifested in increased blood pressure, even toxic myocarditis , myocardial damage and so on.
Lead is very harmful to children. It will seriously affect the overall absorption of calcium, which will further hinder the growth and development of children, and also prevent the transformation of growth hormone in the liver. If there is no timely treatment and control,This will cause children to become short in the long term. Seriously, it can also affect children's attention, suffer from memory loss, comprehension and reading ability reduction, etc...
Recently, in response to this problem, a large-scale study of millions of people in the United States found : Among American children who were tested for lead content, this toxic metal was detected in the blood of about half of the children. Although most children have relatively low levels of lead, about 2% of children have high levels of lead. This research lasted for nearly a year and a half. From October 2018 to February 2020, scientists tracked more than 1.1 million children under the age of 6 who were tested for lead content. They published their findings and results in an article titled "Individual- and Community-Level Factors Associated With Detectable and Elevated Blood Lead Levels in US Children Results From a National Clinical Laboratory" in "Jama Pediatrics" magazine:
This discovery has sounded the alarm for health problems in the United States, especially: is now in the new crown virus pandemic, they are worried about the harm and health problems brought to people in this situation at any time deterioration. This has become an issue that is getting more and more attention . Morri Markowitz is responsible for the lead poisoning prevention and treatment project at the Montefiore Children’s Hospital. In response to the recent study on "lead content in children", he explained: " The overall situation in our country is: most children There is lead in the body. For lead,Even if the content is low, it is very harmful to human health. We hope that the lead content will be reduced to 0 .
Most children come into contact with lead through lead-containing paint in old houses. Of course, lead can easily enter their bodies in other cases, such as: is used to introduce water into the house Lead pipes, lead contained in outdoor soil, , etc. The US Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization believe that: Any lead that enters the blood is unsafe and is likely to cause harm to our health_ strong6strong. It is well known that lead can cause irreversible damage to developing children, including these hazards including: damages the brain and nervous system, causing problems in learning, behavior, hearing and language.
this The co-author of the study Harvey is the senior medical director of Quest Diagnostics . The company provided the technology for the study. He said: "This new study uses more sensitive technology to detect children The low lead content in the blood is the first in history. Before the start of this test, we estimated that some children will have lead in their blood. We did not expect that half of all children tested had lead levels! "
The authors of the study also found that is poor, old buildings, blacks and Hispanics dominate the community are more likely to be exposed to lead regularly, and other studies have also found that these same people are more likely to be exposed to lead.
Philip Landrigan and David Bellinger wrote in a corresponding editorial published in the magazine on Monday: " These findings illustrate that in order to achieve the goal of eliminating lead poisoning in American children,We still have a long way to go. We should be aware of how important and urgent it is to eliminate all sources of lead exposure, thereby cutting off children’s access to lead sources. "
Regarding the issue of cutting off the route, the Biden government is planning to replace lead pipes. This is a key method, but it also has its drawbacks, because the replacement of these pipes also requires the lead paint in the house. Removed, therefore, the result of doing so still left a major source of lead exposure.
In 2017, a group of researchers found that in the interests of the economy and public health, it is only for children born in 2018 , As long as they avoid their exposure to lead, it can save the United States as much as 84 billion U.S. dollars.
A previous survey by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that about 2.5% of young children in the United States have a blood lead of 5 micrograms or more per deciliter. High. CDC began to use this threshold as a so-called reference value in 2012 to identify children and guide families to take lead reduction measures. In this recent study, scientists have another discovery: Among the children tested, about 50.5% of the children were found to have lead content. Most of them had a lead content of between 1 and 2 micrograms per deciliter. 1.9% of children had a blood lead content of 5 micrograms or more per deciliter. Many.
Kaufman said: "Although it is not the American people who conducted lead content testing this time, the results of the lead content testing in this group of children can actually represent the overall lead content of all people in the United States. "The study also found that only 18 states and the District of Columbia require medical institutions to screen all children or high-risk children, while other states have no special requirements.
In general, over time Due to the efforts and attention of all walks of life, such as: the federal government banned the use of lead paint in 1978, the problem of lead pollution in children has been significantly improved. From the late 1970s to 2011 to 2016, children The lead level in the blood has dropped by about 95%.
Markowitz of Montefiore Children’s Hospital said: “ contains lead in the environment around us, and lead has always been there, but in terms of the amount of lead in the environment, it’s been more than 50 years. It has improved a lot in the past, but lead will never disappear. It is invisibly entering people’s blood and will cause many health problems. Therefore, we must pay great attention to this problem."
References:
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-09-contamination-blood-young-kids.html
Note: This article aims to introduce the progress of medical research and cannot be used as a reference for treatment options. If you need health guidance, please go to a regular hospital for treatment.
Popular·Article
Gene Sequencing
[Hot Discussion] How to achieve more uniform and accurate genetic testing? Shock! Two top genetic testing companies performed liquid biopsies on the same group of cancer patients, and the results were quite different
New coronavirus
[Nature hot discussion] The new coronavirus is getting stronger, but the protective effect of the vaccine is gradually weakening. what should we do?
new coronavirus
【Nature hot discussion】The epidemic in Fujian has spread to four places! Large-scale study of 1.1 million people in Israel: People who have been vaccinated with booster shots are 19.5 times less likely to be infected with the new coronavirus than those who have received only two injections
New coronavirus
Area,The new crown is just the tip of the iceberg, there will be more SARS-like viruses!
Gut microbes
【Genome Medicine】It is the first to use gut microbe data for the prognosis study of rheumatoid arthritis, which is expected to become the key to future treatment!
Organoid Research
【Nature Sub-Journal】Using the new synthetic gel, the pancreas "organoid" can be easily cultivated and accurately replicate the human pancreas
Tumor Research
【The Lancet Journal] Can low-dose CT screening for lung cancer really effectively reduce mortality? British scientists will show you the answer through experiments!
Covid-19
[Heavyweight] How protective is the Covid-19 vaccine against Delta virus? The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has given the answer: The death rate of the unvaccinated population is 11 times that of the vaccinated population!
gene sequencing
[Nature sub-publish] The largest DNAm gene study to date: The genetic variation related to DNAm at 420,509 DNAm loci in the blood has been identified
Tumor Research
【 Heavy] Scientists at Johns Hopkins University have discovered that the self-correction function of genes can resist blood cancer, which is expected to be a major breakthrough in the treatment of blood cancer!
gene detection
[Nature] The 1.5 million largest genome-wide association study, which identified nearly 600 gene loci related to antisocial behavior, alcoholism, and opioid addiction
New crown virus
【Nature】Heavy! Why can the delta mutant virus spread so quickly and fiercely? Scientists from the University of Cambridge will take you to learn about it
Recommendations·Activities
The 3rd Shanghai International Cancer Conference
The 5th Symposium on Modern Clinical Molecular Diagnosis
.
