Are you concerned you or your child may have been exposed to lead recently? Your GP can order a blood test and this is a covered test.

About Blood Testing

Blood tests measure current/recent exposure (past 1-3 months or longer for high exposures). There isn’t an accurate way to look further into the past but some people find hair analysis can give an idea of past exposure (past few years). Hair analysis doesn’t have established method protocols so there may be significant variations and may not be reliable.

Barriers to Testing

Many GPs may think your child can only be exposed to lead if you’ve recently painted your old house. If you have valid concerns for exposure, and your GP refuses the test, try another one. Also, perhaps you can encourage them to check out our page “Information for Medical Professionals” which is full of medical and scientific resources for education about lead risks and harm.

Context for Blood Lead Level Results

The NZ notifiable blood level is 0.24 umol/L (5 ug/dL). This dropped from 0.48 umol/L (10 ug/dL) in 2021. The NZ levels generally follow from the US CDC blood levels of concern which are periodically revised based on US population lead levels, and is currently 3.5 ug/dL. The international medical and scientific community stress that there is no safe level of lead exposure, since every measured level, even as low as 1 ug/dL (0.048 mol/L) has been shown to have adverse effects.

International units are ug/dL. NZ uses umol/L. To convert from the NZ units, multiply by 20.7.