Sargent J D, Bailey A, Simon Blake PM, Dalton MA. Census tract analysis of lead exposure in Rhode Island children. Environmental Research. 1997;74:159-68.
The authors of this article on lead exposure find that recent immigrants, especially Hispanic and Southeast Asian refugee families, are more likely to move into neighborhoods in which the housing is deteriorating, which increases their chances for lead exposure. These populations may be replacing more traditional risk groups in these neighborhoods, such as African American children. Immigrant groups may be forced to live in these areas because their limited financial resources require them to seek neighborhoods with the lowest average rents. The authors recommend policy changes to improve housing conditions targeted at tracts of rental housing with high vacancy rates to have the greatest impact on lead exposure prevalence. They also state the limitations involved in individually based studies of lead exposure that result in a limited understanding of poor and highly mobile populations due to study dropout rates.
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