Relationship between lead in breast milk and lead in blood of urban and rural mothers

ABSTRACT

Lead levels in breast milk and maternal blood of 60 lactating women were determined using Perkin-Elmer 2380 atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The mean lead concentration in breast milk was 4.13 +/- 0.89 micro g/dl and 3.06 +/- 0.76 micro g/dl for urban and rural mothers respectively. The mean lead concentration in blood was 6.19 +/- 1.09 micro g/dl and 4.61 +/- 0.93 micro g/dl for urban and rural mothers respectively. Urban women showed higher lead concentrations of both breast milk lead and blood lead than that of rural women [P < 0.0001]. In this study, lead concentrations in both milk and blood were affected by maternal age and exposure to smoking. The most important factors used to predict lead concentrations of breast milk in the studied samples were maternal age and maternal blood lead concentration. According to the daily permissible intake value established by WHO which is 5.0 micro g/kg/day in mother's milk, the mean value for lead in breast milk of urban and rural mothers was higher than the permissible level [6.3 micro g/kg/day and 6.1 micro g/kg/day respectively]