Little lead may damage kids’ kidneys

Even a small amount of lead in a child’s body can worsen kidney function, says a new study. Current exposure sources include lead paint in toys or walls, folk remedies, glazed pottery, soil and drinking water in some urban areas with older housing.

In 1991, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reduced safe levels for children from 30 micrograms (mg) to 10 mg per tenth of a litre of blood or decilitre.

But Johns Hopkins Children’s Centre has come up with evidence to show that even levels below 10 mg are likely to impair kidney function.

”To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that very low levels of lead may impact kidney function in healthy children,” says Jeffrey Fadrowski, lead investigator and paediatric nephrologist at Hopkins Children’s.

The Johns Hopkins team cautions that their findings present only a snapshot of kidney status and lead levels and do not offer definitive proof of cause and effect between the two.

But the scientists say their findings are worrisome and emphasise the urgent need for studies that track lead levels and kidney function over time to better understand the link between the two.

”Our findings were particularly striking because we saw slightly decreased kidney function in healthy children without conditions that could account for it,” says Susan Furth, senior study investigator and Fadrowski’s counterpart at Hopkins Children’s.

”This could spell more kidney trouble down the road as these children get older or if they acquire additional risk factors for kidney disease, such as high blood pressure and diabetes,” adds Furth, according to a Johns Hopkins release.

Of the 769 healthy children and teens in the study, aged 12 to 20 years, more than 99 percent had lead levels below 10, with an average level of 1.5 micrograms per decilitre.

Chronic kidney disease affects 26 million people in the US.