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Date Posted: 04:59:53 05/04/04 Tue
Author: J.R.Smith,c.f.t.,s.p.n.,s.s.c. -ISSA
Subject: Blood pressure, lead levels and women



Lead Level Linked to Blood Pressure Boost in Women

Reuters Health

Tuesday, March 25, 2003


NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Middle-aged women with elevated levels of lead in their blood may be more likely than their peers to develop high blood pressure, U.S. scientists said Tuesday.

Their study of more than 2,000 women ages 40 to 59 found that the link between blood lead levels and high blood pressure was particularly strong after menopause.

"These results provide support for continued efforts to reduce lead levels in the general population, especially women," the researchers report in the March 26th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In the study, Dr. Denis Nash of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and colleagues evaluated blood lead levels and blood pressure among 2,165 women in a national health survey. Women were divided into four groups based on blood lead levels.

Overall, the researchers found, the group with the highest blood lead levels had increased risks of general high blood pressure, as well as high systolic or diastolic readings.

Systolic blood pressure is the first number in a blood pressure reading and reflects pressure when the heart is contracting. Diastolic blood pressure, the second number in the reading, refers to blood pressure when the heart is relaxed between contractions.

Among postmenopausal women, the association was "much more pronounced," Nash's team reports. For them, the risk of diastolic hypertension increased in tandem with blood lead levels -- with those in the highest lead-level group eight times more likely to have the condition than women in the lowest lead-level group.

Some past studies have linked high blood pressure with lead exposure, but they mostly consisted of exposures in the work environment and focused largely on men.

Since lead in the blood eventually gets deposited in bone, women could be especially vulnerable to the effects of lead due to the natural demineralization of bone as they go through menopause. Lead deposited in bone during childhood and early adulthood may be re-released into the blood during middle age.

However, while there is evidence that women see small increases in blood lead during menopause, the health impact has been unclear, according to Nash and his colleagues.

What's particularly "troubling" about these new findings, the researchers write, is that lead appears to affect blood pressure even at levels below what's considered a health hazard.

The U.S. occupational blood lead exposure limit is 40 micrograms per deciliter of blood (ug/dL), and federal health officials put the "level of concern" for preventing lead poisoning in children at 10 ug/dL.

In this study, women in the highest lead-level group had levels between 4 and 31 ug/dL, with an average measurement of just over 6 ug/dL.

"From a public health perspective, the most important and troubling implication of these findings is that lead appears to increase blood pressure in women at very small increments above 1 ug/dL, well below what is considered deleterious in adults," the researchers write.

They call for more research into the health effects of lead release during menopausal bone demineralization.

In the U.S. today, children are generally exposed to less lead than they were 25 years ago. The gradual elimination of some of the most obvious sources of environmental lead, such as lead-based paint and leaded gasoline, has reduced overall blood lead levels in Western populations over the past few decades.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association 2003;289:1523-1532

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