Child Blood Lead Positively Linked to Household Firearm Ownership

TUESDAY, March 19, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Elevated child blood lead is positively associated with household firearm ownership, according to a study published online Feb. 22 in The Journal of Pediatrics.

Christian Hoover, M.P.H., from the Brown School of Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional ecological study to examine whether household firearm ownership rates, a proxy for firearm-related lead exposure, were associated with the prevalence of elevated child blood lead levels in 44 U.S. states between 2012 and 2018.

The researchers found a positive correlation for the prevalence of elevated child blood lead with household firearm ownership and established predictors of lead exposure. Child blood lead was positively associated with household firearm ownership and older housing in fully adjusted negative binomial regression models; there was a 41 percent higher prevalence of childhood elevated blood lead levels with each interquartile range (14 percent) increase in household firearm ownership rate (prevalence ratio, 1.41).

“Our results provide evidence of a link between firearms and child lead exposure at the state level,” the authors write. “Overall, more work is needed to show if there is causality at the individual level but such research may face challenges given how polarizing the topic of firearms has become in U.S. political discourse.”

One author has been compensated for serving as an expert witness relating to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substance-contaminated drinking water.

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