PHY4.A Lead in the blood of children: Selected blood lead levels of children ages 1–5, selected years 1976–1980 through 2017–2020

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Characteristic 1976–1980 1988–1994 1999–2002 2003–2006 2007–2010 2013–2016 2017–2020a
Percent of children with blood lead level = 5 µg/dLµg 99.8 25.6 8.6 4.1 2.6 0.9 0.4
50th percentile (µg/dL) 15.0 3.0 1.9 1.6 1.3 0.7 0.6
95th percentile (µg/dL) 29.0 10.8 6.3 4.6 3.9 2.5 2.1
a The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) program suspended field operations in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, data collection for the 2019–2020 cycle was not completed. Therefore, data collected from 2019 to March 2020 were combined with data from the 2017–2018 cycle to create a 2017–March 2020 pre-pandemic file. This file covers 3.2 years of data collection. For more information, see: https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/continuousnhanes/overviewbrief.aspx?Cycle=2017-2020.
NOTE: The reference level of 5 µg/dL was the 97.5th percentile of blood lead levels for children ages 1–5 in 2005–2008. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lowered this reference level to 3.5 µg/dL in 2021 to identify children with elevated blood lead levels.
SOURCE: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

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