The Lead Education and Abatement Design Group：（教育和治理设计团队）.pdfVIP

The Lead Education and Abatement Design Group Working to eliminate lead poisoning globally and to protect the environment from lead in all its uses: past, current and new uses ABN 25 819 463 114 Alcohol’s link to higher lead and iron levels By Robert Taylor, Researcher, The LEAD Group Inc. Since the 1980s it has been clear there were links between higher blood lead levels and alcohol consumption (Shaper et al 1982, Hense et al 1992, Pizent et al 2001). In the USA women who were heavy alcohol consumers were 5.6 times more likely to be in the highest 10% of the population for blood lead than teetotallers [consumers of no alchohol] (Lee et al 2005). Much effort was expended in the 1990’s, tracking possible sources of lead contamination in alcohol, notably lead seals on wine bottles and illicit liquor. But the overall correlations were not explainable by the degree of lead contamination (Shaper et al 1982 p301). A clue, however, appeared in an apparent contradiction – individuals who consumed significant alcohol were likely to have higher iron levels (Whitfield 2001). Two glasses of alcohol a day reduces the risk of being iron deficient (Whitfield et al 2001 p1041) and any alcohol consumption reduced the risk of iron deficiency anaemia by up to 40% (Ioannou et al 2004). Again much research effort was spent identifying sources of contamination, notably in Africa, where beer was brewed in iron vats (Choma et al 2007). But the trend was apparent outside Africa (Whitfield et al 2001) and was the result of increased rates of iron absorption from the intestine (Duane et al 1992, Kohgo et al 2007 p4701). The reason why higher levels of iron and