In this work, we also studied the concentrations of
hemoglobin and Zinc protoporphyrin as biomarkers of
lead effect. Results showed that at the beginning of the
study, when the children had the highest levels of lead
exposure, they were more at risk for anemia, which is
expressed as low hemoglobin levels (an adverse effect
attributed to lead exposure) [10]. These results confirm
the well described effects of lead on heme metabolism.
Zinc protoporphyrin did not show significant changes
during the study, possibly due to the fact that most of
the children had B-Pb levels under the threshold for
increased Zinc-protoporphyrin (91.6% of children had
B-Pb levels below 20.0 μg/dl when the study began)