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Impact of gasoline lead on human blood the Athens lead experiment

Abstract

An enforced reduction of the lead content of gasoline from about 0.49 to about 0.27 g/l was carried out in mid 1983 in the greater Athens area, including almost all the Attica, the region surrounding Athens. Taking advantage of this reduction, the Athens Lead Experiment attempts to assess the contribution of local gasoline lead to the blood lead of healthy, non-professionally exposed groups of central Athens inhabitants. The decline of blood lead which it was expected would follow the decreased population exposure to lead from vehicle exhausts, was the rationale underlying the study. The study shows the existence of a beneficial trend toward decreasing blood lead levels and points out a reasonably small gasoline lead impact on blood of central Athens inhabitants, hence presumably smaller in suburban areas. Nevertheless, it must be said that the gasoline lead impact may suffer from a major uncertainty: the necessity of extrapolating the local-gasoline-independent blood fall rate observed in 1984 through 1988 to the 1981-82 levels. The experiment also reveals the improvement of the air quality of the town, i.e. the large decrease of air lead following the decrease of gasoline lead.
Authors:
Colombo, A; Leyendecker, W; Versino, B; [1]  Nakou, S; [2]  Hatzichristidis, D; Papadopoulou, S; [3]  Chartsias, B [4] 
  1. Commission of the European Communities, Ispra (IT). Joint Research Centre
  2. Institute of Child Health, Athens, (GR)
  3. Ministry for the Environment Physical Planning and Public Works, PERPA, Athens (GR)
  4. Occupational Physiology and Pathology Research Centre, Hygiene and Industrial Toxicology Dept., Athens, (GR)
Publication Date:
Dec 31, 1990
Product Type:
Technical Report
Report Number:
EUR-12830
Reference Number:
SCA: 020600; 570000; PA: FRC-92:000838; SN: 92000737365
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 1990
Subject:
02 PETROLEUM; 99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE; LEAD; COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS; BLOOD; GASOLINE; GREECE; PUBLIC HEALTH; BIOLOGICAL ACCUMULATION; ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION; MAN; EXPERIMENTAL DATA; STATISTICAL DATA; 020600; 570000; HEALTH AND SAFETY
OSTI ID:
10151799
Research Organizations:
Commission of the European Communities, Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
Country of Origin:
France
Language:
English
Other Identifying Numbers:
Other: ON: TI92517827; TRN: FR9200838
Availability:
OSTI; NTIS (US Sales Only); INIS
Submitting Site:
FR
Size:
49 p.
Announcement Date:
Jul 05, 2005

Citation Formats

Colombo, A, Leyendecker, W, Versino, B, Nakou, S, Hatzichristidis, D, Papadopoulou, S, and Chartsias, B. Impact of gasoline lead on human blood the Athens lead experiment. France: N. p., 1990. Web.
Colombo, A, Leyendecker, W, Versino, B, Nakou, S, Hatzichristidis, D, Papadopoulou, S, & Chartsias, B. Impact of gasoline lead on human blood the Athens lead experiment. France.
Colombo, A, Leyendecker, W, Versino, B, Nakou, S, Hatzichristidis, D, Papadopoulou, S, and Chartsias, B. 1990. "Impact of gasoline lead on human blood the Athens lead experiment." France.
@misc{etde_10151799,
title = {Impact of gasoline lead on human blood the Athens lead experiment}
author = {Colombo, A, Leyendecker, W, Versino, B, Nakou, S, Hatzichristidis, D, Papadopoulou, S, and Chartsias, B}
abstractNote = {An enforced reduction of the lead content of gasoline from about 0.49 to about 0.27 g/l was carried out in mid 1983 in the greater Athens area, including almost all the Attica, the region surrounding Athens. Taking advantage of this reduction, the Athens Lead Experiment attempts to assess the contribution of local gasoline lead to the blood lead of healthy, non-professionally exposed groups of central Athens inhabitants. The decline of blood lead which it was expected would follow the decreased population exposure to lead from vehicle exhausts, was the rationale underlying the study. The study shows the existence of a beneficial trend toward decreasing blood lead levels and points out a reasonably small gasoline lead impact on blood of central Athens inhabitants, hence presumably smaller in suburban areas. Nevertheless, it must be said that the gasoline lead impact may suffer from a major uncertainty: the necessity of extrapolating the local-gasoline-independent blood fall rate observed in 1984 through 1988 to the 1981-82 levels. The experiment also reveals the improvement of the air quality of the town, i.e. the large decrease of air lead following the decrease of gasoline lead.}
place = {France}
year = {1990}
month = {Dec}
}