Changes of Atmospheric and Blood Concentrations of Lead and Cadmium in the General Population of South Korea from 2008 to 2017

Jaeouk Ahn, Nam-Soo Kim, Byung-Kook Lee, Inbo Oh and Yangho Kim
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Jaeouk Ahn: Department of Medical IT Engineering, Soonchunhyang University, 22 Suncheonhyang-ro, Asan 31538, Korea
Nam-Soo Kim: Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, 22 Soonchunhyang-ro, Asan 31538, Korea
Byung-Kook Lee: Department of Preventive Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, 22 Suncheonhyang-ro, Asan 31538, Korea
Inbo Oh: Environmental Health Center, Ulsan University Hospital, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 877 Bangeojinsunhwando-ro, Dong-gu, Ulsan 44033, Korea
Yangho Kim: Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Ulsan University Hospital, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 877 Bangeojinsunhwando-ro, Dong-gu, Ulsan 44033, Korea

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 12, 1-14

Abstract: We measured changes in atmospheric and blood levels of lead and cadmium in the South Korean general population during the past decade. Blood data of 16,873 adults were taken from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES, 2008–2017). Atmospheric data were taken from 66 air quality monitoring sites in 16 different regions in South Korea. From 2008 to 2017, the geometric mean (GM) blood lead level decreased from 2.37 to 1.46 μg/dL (38.4% decrease), and the atmospheric lead concentration decreased by 61.0% in the overall population. During this time, the GM blood cadmium level decreased from 0.88 to 0.72 μg/L (18.2% decrease), and the atmospheric cadmium concentration decreased by 63.6%. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that a half reduction in air lead was associated with a 0.09 μg/dL decrease in blood lead (95% CI: 0.03 to 0.15) in a subgroup of the metropolitan city population. However, a half reduction in air cadmium had no significant effect on blood cadmium. Multiple linear regression analyses indicated that the decrease in blood lead level over 10 years in Korea was related to the decrease in atmospheric lead concentration. However, the decrease in blood cadmium level during this time was not significantly associated with the decrease in atmospheric cadmium concentration. Our findings suggest that inhalation is a major source of lead exposure, but not of cadmium exposure. Ingestion of dietary cadmium presumably has a stronger impact on blood cadmium levels.

Keywords: lead; cadmium; air concentration; blood; exposure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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