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End Childhood Lead Poisoning
The focus of this year’s campaign “End Childhood Lead Poisoning” reminds governments, civil society organizations, health partners, industry and others of the unacceptable risks of lead exposure and the need for action to protect children’s health. The campaign builds on the success in outlawing the use of lead in petrol and the progress achieved by many countries in establishing laws that limit the use of lead in paint, particularly those paints to which children are exposed in their homes, schools and playgrounds.
The aim of the week of action is to:
- raise awareness about health effects of lead exposure;
- highlight the efforts of countries and partners to prevent lead exposure, particularly in children; and
- urge further action to eliminate lead paint through regulatory action at country level.
The issue
Lead is a well-recognized toxicant that has wide-ranging health impacts, in particular affecting the neurological, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and haematological systems. Young children are particularly vulnerable as they have unique pathways that can lead to higher exposures than adults. In addition , lead can lead to irreversible damage to the developing braiin that can result in health outcomes that last for the rest of the child’d life, such as reduce intellectual ability.. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) latest data estimates that more than 2 million deaths globally were attributed to chemical exposures in 2019. Lead exposure was attributed to nearly half of these deaths. Additionally, lead exposure was estimated to account for 21.7 million years lost to disability (disability-adjusted life years, or DALYs) worldwide in 2019, including 30% of the global burden of idiopathic intellectual disability, 4.6% of the global burden of cardiovascular disease and 3.0% of the global burden of chronic kidney diseases.
Despite wide recognition of the harmful effects of lead and actions in many countries, exposure to lead, particularly during childhood, remains a key concern to health care providers and public health officials worldwide.
Important sources of exposure to lead include environmental contamination from mining, smelting, manufacturing and recycling activities and the use of lead in a wide-range of products. The majority of global lead consumption is for the manufacture of lead-acid batteries for motor vehicles. Other products containing lead include pigments, paints, solder, stained glass, lead crystal glassware, ammunition, ceramic glazes, jewellery, toys, some common electrical and electronic items, some cosmetics such as kohl and sindoor and traditional medicines used in countries such as India, Mexico and Viet Nam. Drinking water delivered through lead pipes or pipes joined with lead solder may contain lead. Much of the lead in global commerce comes from recycling operations.
ILPPW2023
