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NCER Staffer Publishes Paper Linking Lead to High Blood Pressure
(March, 2003) Dr. Barbara S. Glenn, an environmental scientist and project officer in the EPA's National Center for Environmental Research, published a study recently in the prestigious journal, Epidemiology entitled "The Longitudinal Association of Lead with Blood Pressure." Her paper adds to the existing body of evidence that lead, a metal that is widespread in the environment, may cause elevated systolic blood pressure, both as an acute and a chronic effect.
As is well known, high blood pressure increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes, and even a small increase in the condition can have adverse effects in the population. Lead does not degrade and was used for many years in gasoline and paint. Among other sources, this toxic metal is present in battery recycling and manufacturing, and is often found when paint is removed during the remodeling of older homes.
Dr. Glenn conducted her study with Drs. Brian Schwartz and Walter Stewart at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. The scientists found that lead in both blood and bone was associated with increases in systolic blood pressure measured over the four year study. To arrive at this finding, the study focused on 496 current and former employees of a chemical manufacturing facility in the eastern United States who were exposed to inorganic and organic lead because of their jobs. Blood pressure among study subjects was measured on multiple occasions during the study, giving stronger evidence of lead's effects than a one-time measurement. Results of this study confirmed the findings of previous research that linked lead with high blood pressure.
Dr. Glenn did her research as a postdoctoral fellow at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her Ph.D. in 1999 in environmental epidemiology from the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Additional information on the STAR program can be found at the National Center for Environmental Research. For more information, contact Estella Waldman at Waldman.Estella@epa.gov.