Effects of lead and socio-cultural factors on cognition and behaviour of children in Port Pirie and Broken Hill

铅对儿童“智力”的影响是有争议的。高铅暴露的儿童的智商得分是合理的，但对于铅暴露是否只是智商低下的常见关联，或者它是否真的导致了缺陷，人们存在分歧。1994年，NHMRC谨慎地建议实施一系列分级干预措施，这取决于社区中血铅浓度在特定类别中超过10微克铅-100毫升血液的儿童比例。选择这一数字（10微克-分升）与其说是科学的，不如说是实用的;当时关于低于10微克-分升的接触对健康影响的数据很少。最近对过去研究的汇总数据的分析表明，血铅浓度低于10微克-分升可能对儿童智商产生很大影响。卫生当局很快将被大力游说，要求在新的铅减排项目上投入巨资。像皮里港和布罗肯希尔这样的城市（合作项目已经显著减少了铅暴露，现在他们的孩子中有很高比例的血铅水平低于10微克-分升），将被迫审查昂贵的选择，以避免关闭提供经济支柱的行业，如果这种分析被证明是正确的。我们的提案认为，在投入新的昂贵的减排项目之前，迫切需要通过对铅暴露低于10微克-分升的儿童进行新的研究来增加我们的证据基础，使用更现代的智力测量方法。这项研究将更加关注儿童智商的一些社会文化和遗传决定因素，这些因素可能会混淆过去研究中的铅-智商关联，并将补充智商评估（现在被认为是从一个非常古老和狭隘的智力观点衍生出来的），用新的工具来测量“智力”，可能不太依赖社会文化。

The effect of lead on children's 'intelligence' is controversial. Poorer IQ scores in children with higher exposure to lead, have been found reasonably consistently, - but there is disagreement on whether lead exposure is simply a common ASSOCIATE of poor IQ, or whether it actually CAUSES deficits. In 1994, the NHMRC prudently recommended a graded series of interventions to be implemented, depending on the proprtion of children in the community with blood lead concentrations in specific categories above 10 ug lead -100 ml of blood. The choice of this figure (10 ug-dl) was more pragmatic than scientific; there being very little data on the health effects of exposures below 10 ug-dl available at that time. A recent analysis of pooled data from past studies has now suggested there may be very large effects on child IQ at blood lead concentration BELOW 10 ug-dl. Health authorities will soon be lobbied intensely to spend vast sums on new lead abatement programs. Cities like Port Pirie and Broken Hill (where cooperative programs have achieved such significant reductions in lead exposure that a high percentage of their children now have blood lead levels below 10 ug-dl), will be forced to examine expensive options to avoid closure of the industries which provide their economic backbones, if this analysis proves to be correct. Our proposal argues that before committing to new and costly abatement programs, there is an urgent need to augment our evidence-base by conducting a new study ofchildren with lead exposures below 10 ug-dl, using more modern measures of intelligence. The study will pay closer attention to some of the socio-cultural and inherited determinants of child IQ which may have confounded the lead-IQ association in past studies, and will supplement IQ assessments (which are now considered to derive from a very old and narrow view of intelligence) with new tools for measuring 'intelligence' that may be less socio-culturally dependent.