Lead Poisoning is matter of grave concern because of its dire consequences. Being able to promptly test or screen for exposure soon after the incident can be a matter of life or death. There are many ways that children get exposed to lead; the most common is household dust from lead based paint.  Lead was commonly used as an additive in household paint before the mid-1970’s, and over time that paint has chipped or was scrapped off during renovation work.  These disturbances have made the lead in the paint available to children.

Lead can also be found in some of the paint used on imported toys, in lead pipes that supplies water to homes, in some natural supplements and in lead contaminated soils.  Soils are contaminated either by their proximity to scrapped paint or to exhaust from vehicles that driven using leaded gasoline. Children’s exposure to lead can be via ingestion or inhalation with early symptoms of chronic lead poisoning being misleading and misdiagnosed.

Signs and Symptoms of Lead Poisoning

Children exposed to lead poisoning exhibit a variety of symptoms such as fatigue, weight loss, lack of appetite, sleeplessness, constipation and hyperactivity. These symptoms can be easily ignored or attributed to other causes. Acute and chronic lead exposure in children affects every organ and system in the body and can have fatal results. The long term effects can lead to brain damage, organ damage, and behavior and learning disabilities. It is therefore imperative for parents to determine if their child has been exposed to lead.

Testing For Lead Exposure

Health care providers routinely ask questions to determine if a child is at risk for lead exposure.  Some countries routinely test children’s blood for lead. A trip to the health provider’s office to take the lead blood test is one way to determine if a child was exposed to lead. Another way to test for lead exposure is the new LeadConfirm testing kit. This test is the only lead test that is saliva based, making it less invasive, so it is pain free.

All that is required is a simple swab (found inside the kit) of the inside of the mouth to collect the saliva sample. The sample is then shipped off to a CLIA Accredited Laboratory where the sample is tested using liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) to determine the amount of lead in the saliva sample.  However, the question that arises from this method is whether the blood levels of lead correlate with the saliva levels of lead or more simply, how accurate is this test?

Which Test is More Accurate - Lead in Saliva or Lead in Blood?

Different studies have been conducted to evaluate the correlation between blood lead levels and saliva lead levels. In one study, conducted at Western Slopes Laboratory (Troy, Michigan, USA), 100 children had their saliva tested using the Confirm technology and at the same time had their blood tested by the US Department of Health in North Carolina. When the two results were compared it showed that both methods effectively established body lead levels.  The LeadConfirm testing kit provides a virtually pain-free reliable indication of lead levels in the human body enabling medical treatment to be started as soon as possible.

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