Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Environmental Health Perspectives logoLink to Environmental Health Perspectives
. 1997 Sep;105(9):956–962. doi: 10.1289/ehp.97105956

Lead exposure and intelligence in 7-year-old children: the Yugoslavia Prospective Study.

G A Wasserman 1, X Liu 1, N J Lolacono 1, P Factor-Litvak 1, J K Kline 1, D Popovac 1, N Morina 1, A Musabegovic 1, N Vrenezi 1, S Capuni-Paracka 1, V Lekic 1, E Preteni-Redjepi 1, S Hadzialjevic 1, V Slavkovich 1, J H Graziano 1
PMCID: PMC1470353  PMID: 9410739

Abstract

For a prospective study of lead exposure and early development, we recruited pregnant women from a lead smelter town and from an unexposed town in Yugoslavia and followed their children through 7 years of age. In this paper we consider associations between lifetime lead exposure, estimated by the area under the blood lead (BPb) versus time curve (AUC7), and intelligence, with particular concern for identifying lead's behavioral signature. The Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Version III (WISC-III) was administered to 309 7-year-old children, 261 of whom had complete data on intelligence, blood lead, and relevant sociodemographic covariates (i.e., Home Observation for the Measurement of the Environment (HOME), birth weight, gender, sibship size, and maternal age, ethnicity, intelligence, and education). These showed anticipated associations with 7-year intelligence, explaining 41-4% of the variance in Full Scale, Performance, and Verbal IQ. Before covariate adjustment, AUC7 was unrelated to intelligence; after adjustment, AUC7 explained a significant 2.8%-4.2% of the variance in IQ. After adjustment, a change in lifetime BPb from 10 to 30 micro/dl related to an estimated decrease of 4.3 Full Scale IQ points; estimated decreases for Verbal and Performance IQ were 3.4 and 4.5 points, respectively. AUC7 was significantly and negatively related to three WISC-III factor scores: Freedom from Distractibility, Perceptual Organization, and Verbal Comprehension; the association with Perceptual Organization was the strongest. Consistent with previous studies, the IQ/lead association is small relative to more powerful social factors. Findings offer support for lead's behavioral signature; perceptual-motor skills are significantly more sensitive to lead exposure than are the language-related aspects of intelligence.

Full text

PDF
956

Images in this article

959Figure 1. A
on p.959
959Figure 1. B
on p.959
959Figure 1. C
on p.959
959Figure 1. D
on p.959
960Figure 2.
on p.960

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Baghurst P. A. Getting the lead out.... Neurotoxicol Teratol. 1995 May-Jun;17(3):213–251. doi: 10.1016/0892-0362(94)00083-p. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Baghurst P. A., McMichael A. J., Tong S., Wigg N. R., Vimpani G. V., Robertson E. F. Exposure to environmental lead and visual-motor integration at age 7 years: the Port Pirie Cohort Study. Epidemiology. 1995 Mar;6(2):104–109. doi: 10.1097/00001648-199503000-00003. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Baghurst P. A., McMichael A. J., Wigg N. R., Vimpani G. V., Robertson E. F., Roberts R. J., Tong S. L. Environmental exposure to lead and children's intelligence at the age of seven years. The Port Pirie Cohort Study. N Engl J Med. 1992 Oct 29;327(18):1279–1284. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199210293271805. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bellinger D. C. Interpreting the literature on lead and child development: the neglected role of the "experimental system". Neurotoxicol Teratol. 1995 May-Jun;17(3):201–212. doi: 10.1016/0892-0362(94)00081-n. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Bellinger D. C., Needleman H. L., Leviton A., Waternaux C., Rabinowitz M. B., Nichols M. L. Early sensory-motor development and prenatal exposure to lead. Neurobehav Toxicol Teratol. 1984 Sep-Oct;6(5):387–402. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Bellinger D. C., Stiles K. M., Needleman H. L. Low-level lead exposure, intelligence and academic achievement: a long-term follow-up study. Pediatrics. 1992 Dec;90(6):855–861. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Bellinger D., Leviton A., Needleman H. L., Waternaux C., Rabinowitz M. Low-level lead exposure and infant development in the first year. Neurobehav Toxicol Teratol. 1986 Mar-Apr;8(2):151–161. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Bellinger D., Sloman J., Leviton A., Rabinowitz M., Needleman H. L., Waternaux C. Low-level lead exposure and children's cognitive function in the preschool years. Pediatrics. 1991 Feb;87(2):219–227. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Burdette L. J., Goldstein R. Long-term behavioral and electrophysiological changes associated with lead exposure at different stages of brain development in the rat. Brain Res. 1986 Sep;394(1):101–110. doi: 10.1016/0165-3806(86)90086-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. David O. J., Hoffman S. P., Sverd J., Clark J. Lead and hyperactivity: lead levels among hyperactive children. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 1977 Dec;5(4):405–416. doi: 10.1007/BF00915088. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. David O., Clark J., Voeller K. Lead and hyperactivity. Lancet. 1972 Oct 28;2(7783):900–903. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(72)92534-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Dietrich K. N., Berger O. G., Succop P. A., Hammond P. B., Bornschein R. L. The developmental consequences of low to moderate prenatal and postnatal lead exposure: intellectual attainment in the Cincinnati Lead Study Cohort following school entry. Neurotoxicol Teratol. 1993 Jan-Feb;15(1):37–44. doi: 10.1016/0892-0362(93)90043-n. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Dietrich K. N., Berger O. G., Succop P. A. Lead exposure and the motor developmental status of urban six-year-old children in the Cincinnati Prospective Study. Pediatrics. 1993 Feb;91(2):301–307. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Factor-Litvak P., Graziano J. H., Kline J. K., Popovac D., Mehmeti A., Ahmedi G., Shrout P., Murphy M. J., Gashi E., Haxhiu R. A prospective study of birthweight and length of gestation in a population surrounding a lead smelter in Kosovo, Yugoslavia. Int J Epidemiol. 1991 Sep;20(3):722–728. doi: 10.1093/ije/20.3.722. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Louis-Ferdinand R. T., Brown D. R., Fiddler S. F., Daughtrey W. C., Klein A. W. Morphometric and enzymatic effects of neonatal lead exposure in the rat brain. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 1978 Feb;43(2):351–360. doi: 10.1016/0041-008x(78)90014-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. McMichael A. J., Baghurst P. A., Vimpani G. V., Wigg N. R., Robertson E. F., Tong S. Tooth lead levels and IQ in school-age children: the Port Pirie Cohort Study. Am J Epidemiol. 1994 Sep 15;140(6):489–499. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a117275. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. McMichael A. J., Baghurst P. A., Wigg N. R., Vimpani G. V., Robertson E. F., Roberts R. J. Port Pirie Cohort Study: environmental exposure to lead and children's abilities at the age of four years. N Engl J Med. 1988 Aug 25;319(8):468–475. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198808253190803. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Miles L. E., Lipschitz D. A., Bieber C. P., Cook J. D. Measurement of serum ferritin by a 2-site immunoradiometric assay. Anal Biochem. 1974 Sep;61(1):209–224. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(74)90347-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Munoz C., Garbe K., Lilienthal H., Winneke G. Significance of hippocampal dysfunction in low level lead exposure of rats. Neurotoxicol Teratol. 1988 May-Jun;10(3):245–253. doi: 10.1016/0892-0362(88)90024-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Murphy M. J., Graziano J. H., Popovac D., Kline J. K., Mehmeti A., Factor-Litvak P., Ahmedi G., Shrout P., Rajovic B., Nenezic D. U. Past pregnancy outcomes among women living in the vicinity of a lead smelter in Kosovo, Yugoslavia. Am J Public Health. 1990 Jan;80(1):33–35. doi: 10.2105/ajph.80.1.33. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Piomelli S. A micromethod for free erythrocyte porphyrins: the FEP test. J Lab Clin Med. 1973 Jun;81(6):932–940. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Prudchenko I. A., Stashevskaia L. V., Mikhaleva I. I., Ivanov V. T., Shandra A. A., Godlevskii L. S., Mazarati A. M. Sintez i biologicheskie svoistva riada novykh analogov peptida del'ta-sna. I. Antiépilepticheskoe deistvie. Bioorg Khim. 1993 Jan;19(1):43–55. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Silva P. A., Hughes P., Williams S., Faed J. M. Blood lead, intelligence, reading attainment, and behaviour in eleven year old children in Dunedin, New Zealand. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1988 Jan;29(1):43–52. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1988.tb00687.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Stiles K. M., Bellinger D. C. Neuropsychological correlates of low-level lead exposure in school-age children: a prospective study. Neurotoxicol Teratol. 1993 Jan-Feb;15(1):27–35. doi: 10.1016/0892-0362(93)90042-m. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Thomson G. O., Raab G. M., Hepburn W. S., Hunter R., Fulton M., Laxen D. P. Blood-lead levels and children's behaviour--results from the Edinburgh Lead Study. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1989 Jul;30(4):515–528. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1989.tb00265.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Wasserman G. A., Graziano J. H., Factor-Litvak P., Popovac D., Morina N., Musabegovic A., Vrenezi N., Capuni-Paracka S., Lekic V., Preteni-Redjepi E. Consequences of lead exposure and iron supplementation on childhood development at age 4 years. Neurotoxicol Teratol. 1994 May-Jun;16(3):233–240. doi: 10.1016/0892-0362(94)90044-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Wasserman G., Graziano J. H., Factor-Litvak P., Popovac D., Morina N., Musabegovic A., Vrenezi N., Capuni-Paracka S., Lekic V., Preteni-Redjepi E. Independent effects of lead exposure and iron deficiency anemia on developmental outcome at age 2 years. J Pediatr. 1992 Nov;121(5 Pt 1):695–703. doi: 10.1016/s0022-3476(05)81895-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Environmental Health Perspectives are provided here courtesy of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

RESOURCES