This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Alvaro Garza, MD, MPH
San Francisco Department of Public Health San Francisco, Calif

JAMA. 1993;270(21):2555.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—The report by Gellert et al¹ on childhood lead poisoning in Orange County, California, contrasts with our San Francisco experience. In 1991, a total of 1199 children younger than 6 years were screened. Like the Orange County study, our sampling was provider based, nonrandom, consecutive, and convenient. Ninety percent of our sampling was through Child Health and Disability Prevention program providers and met the low-income eligibility (Medicaid or income <200% of the federal poverty level).

Our 8.26% overall prevalence of elevated blood lead level was similar to that in Orange County (7.25%), but the prevalence of the higher levels was 5.5-fold greater in San Francisco. A common source of exposure was lead-based paint: all eight children with blood lead levels of 1.20 µmol/L (25 µg/dL) or higher had paint-related exposures, including chewing on painted surfaces, home remodeling, or parents working in painting or construction; six also . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Footnotes
Edited by Drummond Rennie, MD, Deputy Editor (West), and Margaret A. Winker, MD, Senior Editor.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?