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Effect measure modification of blood lead–air lead slope factors

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 25, pages 411–416 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

There is abundant literature finding that susceptibility factors, including race and ethnicity, age, and housing, directly influence blood lead levels. No study has explored how susceptibility factors influence the blood lead–air lead relationship nationally. The objective is to evaluate whether susceptibility factors act as effect measure modifiers on the blood lead–air lead relationship. Participant level blood lead data from the 1999 to 2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were merged with air lead data from the US Environmental Protection Agency. Linear mixed effects models were run with and without an air lead interaction term for age group, sex, housing age, or race/ethnicity to determine whether these factors are effect measure modifiers for all ages combined and for five age brackets. Age group and race/ethnicity were determined to be effect measure modifiers in the all-age model and for some age groups. Being a child (1–5, 6–11, and 12–19 years) or of Mexican-American ethnicity increased the effect estimate. Living in older housing (built before 1950) decreased the effect estimate for all models except for the 1–5-year group, where older housing was an effect measure modifier. These results are consistent with the peer-reviewed literature of time-activity patterns, ventilation, and toxicokinetics.

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Acknowledgements

We give special thanks to Dr. Tom Long and Dr. Zach Pekar for their helpful comments in review of this manuscript. We thank Ms. Nataliya Kravets of the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control, for linking the NHANES data with the AQS and GIS data. Authors from ICF International were funded by contract EP-C-09-009. Authors from academia and the US EPA did not receive external funding for this research.

DISCLAIMER

The research and this manuscript have been reviewed in accordance with US Environmental Protection Agency policy and approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Center for Environmental Assessment, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

    Jennifer Richmond-Bryant, J Allen Davis, David Svendsgaard, James S Brown, Ellen Kirrane, Lisa Vinikoor-Imler, Dennis Kotchmar, Erin Hines & Mary Ross

  2. School of Public Health, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA

    Qingyu Meng

  3. ICF International, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

    Jonathan Cohen & Heidi Hubbard

  4. School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA

    Lauren Tuttle

  5. Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

    Joann Rice

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  1. Jennifer Richmond-Bryant
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  4. J Allen Davis
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Correspondence to Qingyu Meng.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology website

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Richmond-Bryant, J., Meng, Q., Cohen, J. et al. Effect measure modification of blood lead–air lead slope factors. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 25, 411–416 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2014.46

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2014.46

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