Environ Monit Assess (2014) 186:5209–5220 DOI 10.1007/s10661-014-3770-1

Blood levels of cadmium and lead in residents near abandoned metal mine areas in Korea Dong-UK Park & Dae-Seon Kim & Seung-Do Yu & Kyeong-Min Lee & Seung-Hun Ryu & Soo-Geun Kim & Won-Ho Yang & Doo-Yong. Park & Yeong-Seoub Hong & Jung-Duck Park & Byung-Kook Lee & Jai-Dong Moon & Joon Sakong & Seung-Chul Ahn & Jung-Min Ryu & Soon-Won Jung

Received: 21 January 2014 / Accepted: 28 March 2014 / Published online: 18 April 2014 # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

Abstract We analyzed national data on blood lead levels (BLL) and blood cadmium levels (BCL) in residents living near 38 abandoned metal mining areas (n=5,682, 18–96 years old) in Korea that were collected by the first Health Effect Surveillance for Residents in Abandoned Metal mines (HESRAM) from 2008 to 2011. The geometric mean BCL and BLL were 1.60 μg/L (95 % CI=1.57–1.62 μg/L) and 2.87 μg/dL (95 % CI = 2.84–2.90 μg/dL),

respectively, notably higher than levels in the general population in Korea and other countries. We found significantly higher BLL and BCL levels in people living within 2 km of an abandoned metal mine (n= 3,165, BCL=1.87 μg/L, BLL=2.91 μg/dL) compared to people living more than 2 km away (n= 2,517, BCL = 1.31 μg/L, BLL = 2.82 μg/dL; P