December 11th, 2018
Lead is a neurotoxicant with well documented effects on behavior and intellectual functioning, particularly for young children. It continues to be a major environmental health risk in the United States where there are approximately 4 million households in which children are exposed to high levels of lead (CDC, 2015). Worldwide each year lead causes intellectual disabilities in an estimated 600,000 children, most living in low income countries (WHO, 2015; WHO, 2009). Lead in homes comes from various sources including lead paint, contaminated soil, contaminated water, occupational exposures being tracked to homes, and industrial emissions (CDC, 2011). To better understand sources of lead exposure in specific communities and how those sources contribute to elevated blood lead levels in children, field studies need to be conducted to determine prevalence of elevated blood lead levels and evaluate what environmental hazards might be influencing those levels.
This manual is designed to be a guide for field studies to assess the prevalence of elevated blood and environmental lead levels. It is meant to be used as a training tool and guide for field staff to assist with household-level interactions and to provide instructions for carrying out surveys, home inspections, and environmental sample collections. In addition, it provides suggested study goals and objectives, suggested team set-up, and example data collection instruments that may be useful for study design. It was derived from training and guidance documents from previous population based, cross-sectional studies of blood lead levels and environmental risk factors and aims to provide standardization for future studies that follow similar designs.