Increase in Lead Levels Linked to Worse School Academic Performance

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on June 4, 2025.

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 4, 2025 -- A 1-unit increase in lead levels is associated with worse academic performance throughout school grades, according to a study published online May 28 in JAMA Network Open.

George L. Wehby, M.P.H., Ph.D., from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, examined the association of a 1-unit change in early childhood blood lead levels below 3.5 µg/dL versus ≥3.5 µg/dL with academic achievement in a cohort study that linked birth certificates of children born from 1989 to 2010 with their math and reading test scores for grades 2 through 11 and to their early childhood blood lead testing data.

Up to 305,256 children and 1,782,873 child-grade observations were included in the analytical sample. Wehby found that at a mean child age at lead testing of 1.9 years, 37.7 percent of children had lead values below 3.5 µg/dL. A 1-unit increase in lead levels below 3.5 µg/dL was associated with lower national percentile rank (NPR) scores in math and reading (by −0.47 and −0.38, respectively). For lead levels ≥3.5 µg/dL, a 1-unit increase was also associated with lower NPR scores in math and in reading (−0.52 and −0.56, respectively). Across grades 2 through 11, the declines in these scores were persistent.

"Reconsidering and potentially lowering current blood lead reference values for intervention may be needed to better address the associations of low-level lead exposures with cognitive and academic outcomes," Wehby writes.

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Source: HealthDay

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