A Comment on “The Adventures of Lead Commander: An Environmental Education Program to Prevent Lead Poisoning in Young Children”

Abstract

This article comments on a study designed to examine the effectiveness of the family-based, environmental education lead-poisoning program, The Adventures of Lead Commander (Marlowe & Trathen, 1996). Design and methodological weaknesses, such as the use of hair lead concentrations as a biomarker, call into question conclusions reached in the study. The effectiveness of the educational program cannot be ascertained from the data collected. It should be stressed, however, that environmental education projects such as The Adventures of Lead Commander are important in helping to educate the public and school children about lead poisoning and ways of minimizing exposure to this neurotoxin. Education and removal of lead sources are primary methods of reducing lead exposure.

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Notes on contributors

Evert Nieboer

Leonard J. S. Tsuji is an assistant professor of environment and health in the Department of Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Evert Nieboer is a professor of toxicology in the Department of Biochemistry, Health Sciences Centre, at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.