Chronic Lead Poisoning Prevention in Children with Calcium Supplementation

DOI

10.2991/phico-16.2017.57How to use a DOI?

Keywords

children, blood lead levels, chronic lead poisoning, calcium supplementation

Abstract

Lead poisoning is one of the environmental problems around the world affecting human health. Children are at the greatest risk because lead is more easily absorbed by their growing bodies, and because their tissues are especially sensitive to damage. Even blood lead levels as low as 5 æg/dL can irreversibly impair the development of children's brain. Lead competition with ca2+ in the plasma membrane transport system, binds to calmodulin and disturb the enzyme activity that causes the transcription of genes in the nervous system affected. Chronic exposure can cause behavioral disorders, reduce the level of IQ, and cause impaired growth. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of calcium supplementation to decrease blood lead levels (BLLs) of children who are at high risk for chronic lead poisoning. Children aged 9-16 years who live in areas with highest traffic density in Medan (around Terminal Amplas) had chosen randomly included in this quasi-experimental study with a clinical trial design in which subjects were divided into two groups. One as control, one group received calcium with a dose of 400 mg twice daily orally for three months. Samples for BLLs were collected before and after 3 months of supplementation. Descriptive statistics were calculated at two visits (baseline, and 3 months). Potential trends in whole blood lead, and haemoglobine were assessed using paired t-tests; comparison between two treatment were assessed by unpaire t-tests. Statistical significance was defined as P < 0.05. The highest BLLs before was 12 æg/dL, after treatment was 1.9 æg/dL; difference between means in BLLs after 3 months of follow-up was 1.327 ñ 0.4346 g/dL (P 0.004); significantly different (P< 0.05). Calcium at dose 2 x 400 mg daily orally to children who are at high risk for chronic lead poisoning for three months can reduce BLLs significantly.

Copyright

© 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Sri Sofyani
AU  - Aznan Lelo
PY  - 2016/12
DA  - 2016/12
TI  - Chronic Lead Poisoning Prevention in Children with Calcium Supplementation
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st Public Health International Conference (PHICo 2016)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 297
EP  - 302
SN  - 2468-5739
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/phico-16.2017.57
DO  - 10.2991/phico-16.2017.57
ID  - Sofyani2016/12
ER  -