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High Lead Bioavailability of Indoor Dust Contaminated with Paint Lead Species.
Citation:
Sowers, T., C. Nelson, G. Diamond, M. Blackmon, M. Jerden, A. Kirby, M. Noerpel, K. Scheckel, D. Thomas, AND K. Bradham. High Lead Bioavailability of Indoor Dust Contaminated with Paint Lead Species. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 55(1):402–411, (2021). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c06908
Impact/Purpose:
We investigated the sources and toxicity of lead contaminants in house dusts, soils, and nationally-used reference materials. We found house dust lead contamination was in large part from Pb-based paint and that all house dust samples were found to be very toxic (i.e., highly bioavailable). This work is important for understanding lead exposure in households and may inform future exposure and/or remediation studies. These results will be of interest to ORD, regional partners, HUD, and the general public as it exemplifies the importance of assessing household exposures to contaminants such as lead.
Description:
House dust and soils can be major sources of lead (Pb) exposure for children. The American Healthy Homes Survey (AHHS) was developed to estimate Pb exposure from house dust and soil, in addition to other potential household contaminants and allergens. We have combined X-ray absorption spectroscopic (XAS) fingerprinting and in vivo mouse relative bioavailability (RBA) measurements for a subset of house dust and residential soils collected in the AHHS, with the primary objective of gaining a better understanding of determinants of house dust Pb bioavailability. Lead speciation was well related to variations in RBA results and revealed that highly bioavailable Pb (hydroxy)carbonate (indicative of Pb-based paint) was the major Pb species present in house dusts. Measured Pb RBA was up to 100% and is likely driven by paint Pb. To our knowledge, this is the first report of in vivo Pb RBA for U.S. house dust contaminated in situ with paint Pb and corroborates results from a previous study that demonstrated high RBA of paint Pb added to soil. We also report a relatively low RBA (23%) in a residential soil where the major Pb species was found to be plumbojarosite, consistent with a previous report that plumbojarosite lowers Pb RBA in soils.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: High Lead Bioavailability of Indoor Dust Contaminated with Paint Lead Species.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33307690/