Jingyuan Chen
Fourth Military Medical University, China
Keynote: J Clin Toxicol
Children are especially susceptible to chronic lead exposure with effects including physical, cognitive and neurobehavioral impairments, and there is no safe concentration of blood lead below which children are not affected. The presentation provides a comprehensive review of lead exposure among children in China, the sources and new trends of emerging cases. In China, a declining tendency has become evident for children�s blood lead levels in recent years. This trend of changes can be contributed by several factors such as the shutdown and relocation of severely polluting factories, the using of cleaning fuel instead of coal that containing high concentration of lead for cooking and heating, and the enhanced civil awareness of the relationship between environmental lead exposure and human health. One another major reason for declined lead poisoning in cities pertains to the banned production of the leaded gasoline in January 2000 and its sale since July 2000. While the decreasing blood lead concentration of children in Chinese cities is evident, the blood lead levels of these children are still higher than those in developed countries; the children in rural areas are now becoming the major victims of the lead pollution cases, because more and more factories have been moved from cities to rural areas. From the occupational exposure point of view, the main industrial sources of lead pollution in China are ore, and metal processing and manufacturing, as well as combustion of coal, petroleum fuel and wastes. For daily life, the unqualified toys and materials for building and furniture, and lead-polluted food are major sources for children poisoning. Considering that childhood lead poisoning remains a public health problem in China, there is still a long way to go for lead prevention.
Jingyuan Chen has completed his PhD from Fourth Military Medical University and Post-doctoral studies for Columbia University School of Public Health. He is a Medical Officer of PLA General Hospital. He has published more than 80 papers in SCI journals.
Email: jy_chen@fmmu.edu.cn
