Table 2.

Distribution of blood levels for lead and cadmium (in μg/mL) among non-smoking NHANES participants, 1999–2012

Survey years	Pathogen	N	Blood lead					Blood cadmium
			Weighted Geometric Mean (95 % CI)	25th P	50th P	75th P	% below LODa	Weighted Geometric Mean (95 % CI)	25th P	50th P	75th P	% below LODb
1999–2000	Helicobacter pylori	5994	1.50 (1.43–1.57)	0.94	1.43	2.18	0.80	0.33 (0.31–0.36)	0.20	0.29	0.40	35.1
	Negative	4073	1.41 (1.34–1.47)	0.88	1.34	2.01	0.96	0.31 (0.29–0.34)	0.20	0.26	0.38	39.6
	Positive	1921	1.86 (1.77–1.95)	1.18	1.76	2.71	0.26	0.40 (0.37–0.43)	0.23	0.36	0.49	20.4
1999–2004, 2009–2010	Toxoplasma gondii	18,425	1.13 (1.10–1.16)	0.72	1.10	1.69	0.95	0.25 (0.24–0.25)	0.15	0.20	0.38	44.7
	Negative	16,449	1.09 (1.07–1.12)	0.70	1.09	1.60	1.01	0.24 (0.24–0.25)	0.15	0.19	0.34	46.4
	Positive	1976	1.44 (1.40–1.49)	1.00	1.40	2.10	0.47	0.29 (0.28–0.31)	0.17	0.29	0.40	30.4
1999–2012	Hepatitis B virus	17,389	1.41 (1.38–1.44)	0.90	1.40	2.10	0.51	0.30 (0.30–0.31)	0.20	0.30	0.44	26.4
	Negative	16,231	1.39 (1.36–1.42)	0.90	1.39	2.09	0.53	0.30 (0.29–0.30)	0.19	0.29	0.42	14.7
	Positive	1158	1.80 (1.72–1.88)	1.23	1.77	2.61	0.18	0.41 (0.38–0.43)	0.27	0.40	0.59	27.1

LOD limit of detection

^aLOD = 0.30 (1999–2004), 0.25 (2005–2012)

^bLOD = 0.30 (1999–2002). 0.20 (2003–2010), 0.16 (2011–2012)