Lead: Risk Assessment and Health Effects

Sometime in the near future it probably will be shown that the older urban areas of the United States have been rendered more or less uninhabitable by the millions of tons of poisonous industrial lead residues that have accumulated in cities during the past century.
—Clair C. Patterson, 1980, Lead in the Human Environment, National Academy of Sciences.

Dear Colleagues,

As a result of rapid population growth and the transition from a rural to urban society, cities have become the major human habitat on the Earth. Historically, people lived on the land and relied directly on local ecosystem services. The transition to cities increased the duration, intensity, and spatial extent of contact between humans and their predominantly urban environments. Urban societies continue to rely on ecosystem services but they now accentuate their reliance on socioeconomic instead of ecosystem services. The synergistic processes of population growth, urbanization, and technological change contribute to an artificial environment and have profound effects on the human population. The legacy of the lead (Pb) is an important artifact of human activities. The toxic effects of lead on humans and other organisms are one of the best-studied topics known to science. We now live in the near future that Patterson was referring to. The purpose of this volume is to explore the status of scientific evidence regarding Dr. Patterson’s statement about the habitability of cities?

The massiveness of lead mining and lead use in commerce is an especially important topic for understanding health effects. Multiple advances in science serve to refine our understanding about the quality of urban environments. What is currently known about the sources and quantities of lead dispersed and their impacts on cities? What are recent advances concerning the health outcomes of lead exposure? Measurement techniques are critical for addressing lead in the environment and human exposure and numerous developments have in instrumentation? What advances have been made to evaluate the urban disparities of lead exposure? Are there other metals that show similar urban patterns in cities? Who are the most vulnerable individuals to lead exposure? What are advances in statistical tools for evaluating lead and health effects? What is known about the long-term health outcomes from early life lead exposure? Are there adequate interventions available to prevent exposure to toxic metals?

This Special Issue will synthesize what is known urban contamination levels, exposures, vulnerabilities, and the capacities to manage lead contamination. Given the importance of cities to the human population these topics have far ranging implication for human society’s future.

Prof. Dr. Howard W. Mielke
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.