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Steven R. Hilts, ¹ Susan E. Bock, ¹ Terry L. Oke, ¹ Cheryl L. Yates, ¹ and Raymond A. Copes ²

¹ Trail Lead Program Office, Trail, British Columbia, Canada
² Department of Health Care and Epidemiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

Trail, Canada, has been the site of an active lead/zinc smelter for nearly a century. Since 1991, the Trail Community Lead Task Force has carried out blood lead screening, case management, education programs targeted at early childhood groups and the general community, community dust abatement, exposure pathways studies, and remedial trials. From 1989 through 1996, average blood lead levels of children tested for the first time declined at an average rate of 0.6 µg/dl/year, while blood lead levels in Canadian children not living near point sources appeared to be leveling off following the phase-out of leaded gasoline. Since there was no concurrent improvement in local environmental conditions during this time, it is possible that the continuing decline in Trail blood lead levels has been at least partly due to community-wide intervention programs. One year follow-up of children whose families received in-home educational visits, as well as assistance with home-based dust control measures, found that these specific interventions produced average blood lead changes of +0.5- -4.0 µg/dl, with statistically significant declines in 3 years out of 5. Education and dust control, particularly actions targeted toward higher risk children, appear to have served as effective and appropriate interim remedial measures while major source control measures have been implemented at the smelter site. Key words : blood lead, dust control, environmental lead exposure, health education, intervention, smelter contamination. Environ Health Perspect 106:79-83 (1998) . [Online 21 January 1998]

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1998/106p79-83hilts/ abstract.html

Address correspondence to S.R. Hilts, Environmental Coordinator, Trail Lead Program Office, 843 Rossland Avenue, Suite 300, Trail, British Columbia, V1R 4S8 Canada.

This work was funded through grants to the Trail Community Lead Task Force by the British Columbia Ministry of Health, the British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks ; Cominco, Limited ; and the City of Trail. The Rotary Club of Trail, with funding from the Task Force and from the Environmental Citizenship Initiative (Environment Canada) , organized and implemented much of the community dust abatement work described herein. The authors are grateful to Nelson Ames for his comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Received 27 May 1997 ; accepted 20 October 1997.