US Food and Drug Administration's interim reference levels for dietary lead exposure in children and women of childbearing age

Reducing lead exposure is a public health priority for the US Food and Drug Administration as well as other federal agencies. The goals of this research were to 1) update the maximum daily dietary intake of lead from food, termed an interim reference level (IRL), for children and for women of childbearing age (WOCBA) and 2) to confirm through a literature review that with the exception of neurodevelopment, which was not evaluated here, no adverse effects of lead consistently occur at the blood lead level (BLL) associated with the IRL. Because no safe level of lead exposure has yet been identified for children's health, the IRLs of 3 mu g/day for children and 12.5 mu g/day for WOCBA were derived from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reference value of 5 mu g/dL BLL, the level at which public health actions should be initiated. The literature review showed that no adverse effects of lead consistently occurred at the BLL associated with the IRLs (0.5 mu g/dL). The IRLs of 3 mu g/day for children and 12.5 mu g/day for WOCBA should serve as useful benchmarks in evaluating the potential for adverse effects of dietary lead.