ORIGINAL PAPER Impacts of multidisciplinary actions on environmental lead exposure in Uruguay Adriana Cousillas • Laura Pereira • Teresa Heller • Cristina Alvarez • Nelly Man ˜ay Received: 9 April 2010 / Accepted: 11 April 2011 / Published online: 18 October 2011 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Abstract Environmental lead contamination in Uruguay became a matter of public concern in 2001, when cases of children with blood lead levels (BLL) higher than 20 lg/dl appeared in some low-income neighborhoods of Montevideo, being 10 lg/dl the intervention reference BLL. The aim of this paper is to show the results of multidisciplinary actions taken by decisions makers in social, environmental and healthcare aspects, to minimize lead exposure risks. We evaluated changes in blood lead levels of different children and non-exposed adult populations before and after the actions were taken, from 2001 on. For children populations and non-exposed adults, we found a significant decrease of almost 50% in BLL compared with studies done before the actions were taken. The main action to consider was the phasing out process of leaded gasoline in our country among other. We conclude that the integration of inter and multi- disciplinary actions promoted was of high impact on the population, bringing about a public sensitization and growing awareness of the lead environmental risks. Keywords Lead exposure Á Multidisciplinary actions Á Environment Á Uruguay Introduction The toxic effects of lead as an environmental pollutant for human health are well known, children being an especially vulnerable population (US CDC 2002). Symptoms and biological effects are not evident until high blood lead levels (BLL) are reached and depend on the age of the patient, among other parameters (Lauwerys 1994; Bellinger 1994). The current Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s screening guide- line of 10 lg/dl is only a risk management tool and should not be interpreted as a threshold for toxicity (Lauwerys 1994; Bellinger 1994). It is generally accepted that whole-blood lead level (BLL) is the best exposure index, as there is an excellent correlation between actual exposure of the individual and the concentration of lead in blood (Singerman 1984). A. Cousillas (&) Á L. Pereira Á T. Heller Á C. Alvarez Á N. Man ˜ay Toxicology and Environmental Hygiene Department, Faculty of Chemistry, University of the Republic of Uruguay/Gral, Flores, 2124 Montevideo, Uruguay e-mail: azcousil@fq.edu.uy L. Pereira e-mail: lpereira@fq.edu.uy T. Heller e-mail: theller@fq.edu.uy C. Alvarez e-mail: calvarez@fq.edu.uy N. Man ˜ay e-mail: nmanay@fq.edu.uy 123 Environ Geochem Health (2012) 34:207–211 DOI 10.1007/s10653-011-9426-y