To determine the risk of increased blood lead levels in children with aural, nasal, or gastrointestinal foreign bodies, the authors prospectively obtained venous blood lead and erythrocyte protoporphyrin levels from 40 study patients and two control groups without foreign bodies (65 patients presenting to a medical clinic and 40 patients presenting to an emergency department). A questionnaire was used to assess environmental and behavioral risk factors for lead poisoning in the three groups. Mean blood lead level was higher in children with foreign bodies ( P .001), and they were more likely to have a venous blood lead value of more than 1.2 μmol/L (25 μg/dL, P .01) than patients in either control group. Seventy-eight percent of study patients had no prior lead screening by parent's report vs 64% of emergency department control subjects and 55% of medical clinc control subjects. Control patients in the emergency department had the same incidence of elevated blood lead values as patients enrolled from the medical clinic (6%). No differences in environmental risk factors were found among the three groups. Study patients more often had a history of pica or ingestion of a poison than control patients from the medical clinic. Inner-city children with foreign bodies have increased lead exposure and may have an increased risk for lead poisoning. In areas of high prevalence of lead poisoning, children with foreign bodies should be screened for lead poisoning in the emergency department. General lead screening in the emergency department may be justified for high-risk, inner-city populations.
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