Body Burdens

Contaminants in the Bodies of Women and Children

Measurements of the levels of pollutants in children’s bodies provide direct information about exposures to environmental contaminants. Also, measurements in women who may become pregnant, currently are pregnant, or currently are breastfeeding provide information about exposures that potentially can affect conception, the fetus, and/or the developing child. These “body burden” measurements most often are taken from blood samples, but also can come from urine or hair.

One limitation of body burden measures is that they reveal few clues to the source(s) of exposure. For example, lead in children’s blood may come from exposure to airborne sources, contaminated water or food, or contaminated soil or dust.

The measures in this section do not account for many environmental contaminants that are important to children but for which data are not available on a national scale, or for which information is lacking to evaluate health significance. For example, data are now available for a number of other environmental contaminants—such as pesticides and heavy metals—in children’s blood and urine. However, no information is available to show how these concentrations relate to health risks. Also, it is not currently possible to show trends for these contaminants because data are available for only one year.