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Lead exposure in children cases by year

Last updated on Thursday, 24 April 2025 at 02:44pm

Summary

Topic
Lead
Category
cases
API name
lead_cases_casesByYear

Rationale

Assessing the number of cases exposed to lead is crucial for recognising at-risk populations and identifying trends to assess change in exposure sources.

Definition

The count of LEICSS cases reported in England, annually. A case is defined as a child with a blood lead concentration ≥0.24 μmol/L (equivalent to ≥5 μg/dL) detected in a UK Accreditation Service (UKAS) accredited biochemistry or toxicology laboratory. This is reported to UKHSA for public health intervention. The child is aged under 16 years at the time elevated levels of lead are detected in the blood and resident of England. 

Since 5 July 2021, the case definition for surveillance changed to half the original concentration, from 0.48 μmol/L (equivalent to ≥10μg/dL) to 0.24μmol/L (equivalent to ≥5μg/dL). As expected, this led to a steep increase in the number of cases being reported to LEICSS.

Methodology

LEICSS cases are reported directly from UKAS-accredited testing biochemistry or toxicology laboratories, the UKHSA Health Protection Team (HPT) from non-UKHSA sources, or other UKHSA directorates. Cases are referred to a HPT and recorded in the UKHSA case management system (CIMS). The HPTs manage these cases based on their BLC (blood level concentration) level.

Caveats

These data are collected from a passive surveillance system therefore represent an underestimation of lead exposure in children in England. The data trends are more likely to be caused by variation in case identification rather than reflecting lead exposure changes in the population over time.

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