This 73-page guide is available in English, and outlines a method for estimating the disease burden at national, city or local levels caused by environmental exposure to lead. The intended audience includes intermediate level public health professionals, environmental health specialists, as well as policy makers. The method described in the guide assesses lead exposure from the distribution of lead levels in blood samples representative of the study population. For children, the exposure distribution is then converted into a distribution of IQ points lost, resulting mild mental retardation, and into rates of anaemia and gastrointestinal symptoms. For adults, the exposure distribution is converted mainly into increased blood pressure, which may cause various cardiovascular diseases, including ischaemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease.
