Study: Tijuana children show high levels of lead in blood Nearly 11 percent of children in Tijuana have high levels of lead in their blood, mostly because they eat from cookware containing the toxic metal and live near polluted soil, according to a new study. Lead poisoning can affect brain activity and motor skills in humans and can cause permanent damage to the central nervous system in children. The three-year investigation by the University of California, Irvine, tested 1,719 children ranging in age from 18 months to 7 years in and around Tijuana. The study concluded that about 37,000 children, out of a population of 344,000, probably have unhealthful levels of lead in their blood. About 0.1 percent of those children suffer from critical levels of lead that require medical intervention and treatment. The rest can be helped simply by removing lead sources from their environment, the study said. "The good news is that 89 percent of the population (in Tijuana) is below the threshold level for lead poisoning", said Jonathon Ericson, an environmental scientist at UC Irvine, who helped lead the project. The $600,000 study was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control, with contributions from the city of Tijuana and the state of Baja California. As part of the project, researchers started a lead laboratory and clinic at Tijuana General Hospital, and helped counsel parents about reducing lead contamination in households. Simply by replacing dangerous cookware, most of the affected children showed reduced levels of lead, according to the study, which included follow-up testing. The EPA sponsored the research in Tijuana because nearly 30 percent of the children living in Tijuana eventually relocate to the United States. The mean lead level in the blood of Tijuana's children is about twice that of children in the United States, but lower than in other parts of Mexico, Similar testing in Mexico City previously found that 27 percent of children there had unhealthful levels of lead in their bloodstreams. Wednesday, December 15, 1999 PST IRVINE, Calif. (AP) URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1999/12/15/state0834EST0302.DTL [Home] [Back to News Index]