A Geospatial Analysis of the Effects of Aviation Gasoline on Childhood Blood Lead Levels
Environmental Health Perspectives, published online 13 July 2011
Marie Lynn Miranda, Rebecca Anthopolos, and Douglas Hastings
“Background: Aviation gasoline, commonly referred to as avgas, is a leaded fuel used in small aircraft. Recent concern about the effects of lead emissions from planes has motivated the EPA to consider regulating leaded avgas.
“Objective: This study investigates the relationship between lead from avgas and blood lead levels in children living in six counties in North Carolina.
Illustration of airports buffered at distances of 500 m, 1000 m, 1500 m, and 2000 m in Wake County, North Carolina, plotted along with a jittered representation of the residential addresses of the children screened for blood lead.
“Methods: We used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to approximate areas surrounding airports in which lead from avgas may be present in elevated concentrations in air and may also be deposited to soil. We then used regression analysis to examine the relationship between residential proximity to airports and NC blood lead surveillance data in children aged 9 months to 7 years while controlling for factors including age of housing, socioeconomic characteristics, and seasonality.
“Results: Our results suggest that children living within 500 m of an airport at which planes use leaded avgas have higher blood lead levels than other children. This apparent effect of avgas on blood lead levels was evident among children living within 1000 m of airports. The estimated effect on blood lead levels exhibited a monotonically decreasing dose-response pattern, with the largest impact on children living within 500 m.
“Conclusions: We estimated a significant association between potential exposure to lead emissions from aviation gasoline and blood lead levels in children. While the estimated increase was not especially large, the results of this study are nonetheless directly relevant to the policy debate surrounding the regulation of leaded avgas.”
- Read the paper [PDF]
[via All Points Blog]
