Neurological Aspects of Dietary Lead

Abstract

The United Nations Environment Program estimated that in 1987 the global average daily intake of lead was about 80 μg/day from food and 40 μg/day from drinking water. By 2000, the joint Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives established a provisional tolerable intake of 3.5 μg/day. Significant reductions in blood lead levels for the general population resulted from the elimination of lead additives from gasoline and paint and the removal of lead solder from food storage cans. Unfortunately, lead permanently remains in the environment as a neurotoxicant with the potential to contaminant land, water, food sources, and other materials. Dietary lead exposures arise from the ingestion of contaminated water, food, vitamins, supplements, pharmaceuticals, and traditional remedies. Significant lead exposure remains in dietary items available for consumption to all of the world’s population. The neurotoxic properties of lead have been recognized for many years. Emerging evidence suggests that even low levels of exposure, below the current action level of 10 μg/dL, may pose a substantial risk to human health, especially to the developing fetus, infants, and children. Novel epidemiological, genetic, and neuroimaging studies supplement decades of knowledge obtained with animal and in vitro model systems.