Environmental Toxins: Study Launched to Study Link Between Lead Exposure, Brain Development

A landmark study is planned by researchers from Harvard and the University of Michigan Schools of Public Health to look at how genetics and environment lead pollution interact to affect children's intellectual and behavioral functioning. Although it is established that high lead levels in the body affect intelligence, this is the first study in India to measure this effect. The study is unique in that it will measure how lead exposure affects visual-spatial-motor skills and aggressive behavior and it is one of the first studies that looks at how genetic makeup affects the effects of lead exposure.

Genetic Study To Understand Linkage Between Lead Exposure And Children's Intellectual Development In India

"This study represents a cutting edge research collaboration that will gain insights into a global environmental health problem," said Howard Hu M.D., M.P.H., Sc.D, the study's lead investigator. "India and other countries are undergoing rapid urbanization, population shifts to cities, industrialization and a steep increase in the use of fossil fuels for energy and transportation - but population exposures to newer pollution hazards remain understudied," Hu explained. "Understanding the interrelationship of environmental hazards, genetics, and health will provide the information that is needed to formulate regulatory policies, prioritize public health controls, and educate the medical community and the public on how best to mitigate particular environmental exposures. Progress on these fronts would be slow or impossible without public/private partnerships like the one involving Harvard, the University of Michigan, and Bioserve." Hu is Chair and Professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Adjunct Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the Harvard School of Public Health.