Recent research shows that lead exposure, long known to be dangerous to children, is also hazardous for adults and even low-level exposure can cause significant health risks.

According to a review of studies in the December Journal of Environmental Health, adult health impacts are occurring at lead exposure levels far below those regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's standards, and those standards, set in 1978, are no longer protective of human health.

As a result, according to the article by Dr. Rebecca Berg, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health's Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology and Surveillance Program, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists this year all reduced the adult blood lead level considered as "elevated" from 25 to 10 micrograms per deciliter.

Studies also have found that the human lead levels revealed by blood tests are of concern at lower levels than previously thought. And the blood tests don't fully measure cumulative exposures, like those experienced by Allegheny County Health Department employees in Clack Health Center buildings in Lawrenceville.

Even at the lower blood lead levels, research has found, adults can suffer anemia, hypertension, impaired brain function, kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. Women can experience decreased fertility and reproductive problems, and children of lead-exposed women are at higher risk for birth defects.

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