The national trend of blood lead levels among Chinese children aged 0–18years old, 1990–2012

We analyzed the epidemiological data during 1990–2012 that investigated the blood lead level (BLL) in the population aged 0–18years old in China mainland and provided evidence of the benefits of implementing policies to prevent lead pollution based on the dynamic changes of BLL. Data were collected through databases including China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database (CNKI), CBM disc, Wanfang Data, Pubmed and Medline. The inclusion criteria were: 1. Epidemiological study in healthy population not included studies limited to specific patient; 2. Study subject was not the specific lead exposure population; 3. Sample size should be no less than 100 (for neonatal, no less than 50); 4. BLL detection was under strict quality control; and 5. Results should be presented as BLL (arithmetic mean level or geometric mean level). 62 articles were included in this study. All the surveys in these articles contained 189,352 subjects in 19 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. Linear regression analysis showed a significant decrease between 1990 and 2012 with an estimated regression coefficient of 3.05/year (SE=0.01, p