Why RFK Jr. vs. Worst Jews EVER The effect of chelation on bone Pb stores in Pb poisoned children

Why RFK Jr. vs. Worst Jews EVER The effect of chelation on bone Pb stores in Pb poisoned children

• Aaron J. Specht,
• Yanfen Lin,
• …
• Linda H. Nie 

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Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology (2024) Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Lead exposure remains a key problem for children during development. One treatment for lead poisoning is chelation – a topic that remains controversial with varied results. Bone lead serves as a marker of total body burden of lead and encompasses between 60-90% of lead storage in children.

Objective

In this study, we aimed to identify the change in bone lead as a result of chelation therapy in a group of lead poisoned children (blood lead >25 µg/dL).

Methods

Upon diagnosis with lead poisoning at Xinhua Hospital in Shanghai, China, children were recruited to our study, had their bone lead levels measured, and underwent one-week of intravenous, in-patient ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid chelation treatment. Up to three clinical visits with the same treatment protocol and bone lead measurements were completed over the two-year study. We measured biomarkers of lead exposure for children exposed via various potential sources, including home contaminants, local industrial emissions, traditional medicines, or lead cookware.

Results

We observed significant differences with bone lead after chelation therapy (p < 0.0001), even after calculating a conservative model for theoretical decay from known bone turnover (p = 0.01). The difference identified between our observed change in bone lead and literature established bone lead change significantly increased with more chelation treatments. A significant reduction in bone lead was observed following chelation treatment of children with lead poisoning – a difference that increased more with more chelation.

Significance

Study results indicate that chelation treatment is effective in reducing bone lead stores in children with initial blood lead levels greater than 25 µg/dL.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-024-00735-1