Objective  To assess the health risk of lead intake through diet among residents in a mining area in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomoud Region (Guangxi).

  Methods  Using cluster sampling, we recruited 154 children aged 5 – 14 years and 155 parents or grandparents living together with the children for a long time in three villages located in a mining area in Guangxi; then we carried out a face-to-face interview with a self-designed questionnaire and Food Frequency Questionnaire, physical examination, and venous blood sampling among the participants between 2013 and 2014; totally 237 rice and vegetable samples were also collected simultaneously for lead content detection. Margin of exposure (MOE) proposed by Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) was adopted in assessment on dietary lead exposure-related health risk and multivariate linear regression model was used to analyze the correlation between dietary lead exposure and blood lead content.

  Results  For all food samples detected, the median of lead concentration was 0.14 mg/kg and 53 (22.4%) samples had the lead concentration exceeding the national standard. The median of daily dietary lead exposure was 2.04 μg/kg bw.d and 1.43 μg/kg bw.d and the median of MOE was 0.286 and 0.866 for the child and adult participants, suggesting a higher risk of adverse effects of dietary lead exposure in both the children and the adults. The participants' blood lead level was higher than that of the general population in China. The blood lead level was positively correlated significantly with dietary lead exposure among both the child and adult participants (both P < 0.05). After adjusting for age, sex, behavioral habits and environmental factors, the significant impact of dietary lead intake on blood lead levels still remained in the children and the adults.

  Conclusion  The risk of adverse effects of dietary lead exposure is relatively high among residents in mining areas in Guangxi and measures should be taken to reduce dietary lead exposure in the population.