[Study on comparison of the determination of lead concentrations in saliva and blood]

The correlation between lead level in whole-saliva and whole-blood was investigated. The samples for Pb-determination were taken from 473 school-age children chosen from eight elementary schools located in urban and suburban districts where no industrial lead pollution was found. The coefficient of correlation between salivary and blood lead levels was low (r = 0.155 2). When the Pb-S concentrations were adjusted according to salivary protein and expressed by micrograms Pb per gram of salivary protein, the coefficient r calculated again became slightly higher. The means of Pb-S of children in different schools were about a quarter of that of Pb-B. It may be concluded that the salivary lead concentration is not suitable for use as an indicator to measure the individual body burden of lead instead of blood lead in the case of investigation on low-exposed population. The Pb-S value can, however, be used to investigate the Pb-B level of a population, by four times the mean value of Pb-S of the population. Both the Pb-B and Pb-S were related to Pb in air significantly.