Neurobehavioural testing in workers occupationally exposed to lead

• lead
• neurobehavioural testing

Whether or not low to modest levels of exposure to lead have a detrimental effect on cognition is an important issue given the growing attention, for example, in the United States, that has recently been paid towards potentially revising downward the levels of lead exposure allowed in the workplace. Thus, we read with interest the meta-analysis of studies on this topic that appeared in this journal by Goodman and colleagues.1 Unfortunately, we believe that the authors' conclusions are not valid. Specifically, the authors state that “the data available to date are inconsistent and are unable to provide adequate information on the neurobehavioural effects of exposure to moderate blood concentrations of lead”. We found no direct support for this conclusion in the publication. Moreover, numerous flaws in their method limit any specific inferences that can be made. In general, we found that the meta-analysis combined evidence from studies of widely varying quality and did not account for significant confounding within and between studies. Given these and other flaws, it was predictable that the authors did not find an association between blood lead levels and neurobehavioural test scores.

Specific concerns that we had with the methods include: (1) The authors offer no evaluation of the quality of the evidence from available studies based on study design and analytical method. (2) The authors combine data from poorly done studies with data from well done studies, clouding any effects that are observable from the …