 |
Actions >
Lead
Deadly Lead: Sweet to Young Tastebuds, but Toxic
to Young Brains!
Lead residues can threaten children’s health!
How did the plumbing systems, dishes, and fine
wines of Ancient Rome play a role in the empire’s ruin?
Why was leaded gasoline known as “loony gas”
by those acquainted with the neurological impairments that often
befell gas refinery workers from 1921-1986?
What was the cause of death of an estimated 5,000
Americans per year between the 1920s and the 1980s, according to
a 1995 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report?
Why have learning and developmental disabilities
advocacy groups across the nation spoken up to eliminate the commercial
use of lead?
A Dangerous Taste for Lead
Because of its sweet flavor, lead acetate, “sugar of lead,”
was used by the Ancient Romans to enhance its finest foods and wines.
Lead was also considered the best material for use in lining cooking
pots and for cosmetics, coins, bullets, dishes, and paints. Historians
suggest that the host of mysterious maladies, including
sterility and insanity, that befell the Romans were very likely
linked to this everyday exposure to lead.
By the mid-1900s, a host of new uses for lead had been developed,
including adding lead to paint and gasoline. In 1980, the U.S. was
using 1.3 million tons of lead each year, or 11 pounds per person.
That’s ten times more lead than was used by the citizens
of ancient Rome!
Lead is a Potent Neurotoxicant!
The long-term effects of lead can be severe, especially
for children, whose small size and rapidly developing systems make
them more vulnerable than adults. Lead’s wide range
of neurotoxic effects include learning disabilities, decreased growth,
hyperactivity, impaired hearing, behavioral tendencies toward violence,
and even brain damage. Fetuses can be exposed when lead
that the mother is exposed to passes through the placenta. Children’s
bodies absorb lead far more easily than adult bodies, and lead molecules
can bind to calcium, becoming part of the bone structure as a child’s
body grows.
Lead Poisoning Continues to be a Serious Children’s
Health Concern
Because of the widespread outcry against the neurotoxic effects
of lead, it is no longer added to paint or gasoline in the U.S.
However, lead can still be widely found in:
- peeling leaded paint chips,
- dust from pre-1978 buildings,
- contaminated dirt, water, air,
- imported painted objects and pottery,
- ink printed on plastic bags,
- industrial byproduct fertilizers,
- imported vinyl miniblinds,
- pre-1980s plumbing systems,
- makeup and hair dyes,
- coal-fired power plant emissions,
- dirt around freeways, under bridges, and near industrial sites,
- x-ray protection devices,
- computer monitors,
- batteries, and
- candle wicks with metallic cores.
You may have lead in or around your building and in your water
without knowing it because you can’t see, smell, or taste
trace amounts of lead.
About 1 in 22 children in America have high levels of lead
in their blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. Children can ingest lead dust on their hands and
toys during normal hand-to-mouth activity, as well as through contaminated
water and air. Most affected children live in urban settings, among
lower socio-economic groups, immigrants, and refugees.
YOU Can PREVENT Your Child’s Exposure to Lead!
- Avoid calcium deficiencies while you are pregnant and
breastfeeding. Lead is stored in our teeth and bones
after an exposure because it binds to calcium. If the body must
take calcium from the bones to compensate for a dietary deficiency,
lead can be released into the blood stream, exposing the fetus
as blood enters the placenta.
- Have your home tested for lead. Contact the
National Lead Information Clearinghouse for a list of EPA-recognized
laboratories who can test paint, dust, and water samples at www.epa.gov/oppintr/lead/nlic.htm.
Or, do it yourself with a home test swab kit, available at hardware
stores. These indicate the presence of lead, but not the quantity,
on any home surfaces. Call HybridVet Systems for “Lead Check
Swabs,” 800-262-LEAD.
- Have your children tested for lead. Doctors
can determine lead levels with a simple blood test. All infants
between the age of 6 months and two years should be tested.
- Feed your kids a diet rich in calcium and iron.
Spinach, broccoli, raisins, beans, and low-fat dairy products
are good sources.
- Feed your kids a diet low in animal fat. Lead,
like other toxicants, can biomagnify up the food chain and be
stored in animals’ fatty tissues. Choose low-fat dairy products,
remove the fat from meats, and substitute grains and vegetables
wherever possible.
- Eliminate dust that may contain lead. Frequently
wipe toys, furnishings, window sills and other surfaces that children
may touch with a damp cloth. Vacuum carpets with a vacuum cleaner
equipped with a HEPA filter. Wash pacifiers and bottles if they
fall on the floor. Wash stuffed animals regularly.
- Avoid drinking lead-contaminated water. If
you suspect your plumbing system to contain lead solder or pipes,
run water taps for 30 seconds in the morning before drinking water.
Use cold water for cooking as hot water may leach lead in pipes.
Carbon water filters are also effective in removing lead.
- Wash children’s hands frequently.
- Keep children from walking around with food.
It could be put down in areas with lead dust and later ingested.
- Plant grass or other plant covers over soil
that may contain high lead levels.
- Paint over intact lead paint (except on window frames
and doors) to prevent the threat of children licking
and touching lead-covered walls. Painting over window frames and
doors may not solve the problem as friction may wear the safer
paint away, resulting in lead dust.
- Put contact paper or tape over peeling leaded paint
until the problem can be properly dealt with.
- Don’t remove lead paint yourself! Scraping
or sanding lead paint creates lead dust, which can poison your
family. Hire someone with special training and equipment for correcting
lead paint problems to do this task safely. All occupants should
leave the building until all work is finished and a thorough
cleanup is done.
Published by the
INSTITUTE FOR CHILDREN’S ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
For more information and other “Practice Prevention”
columns, see www.iceh.org.
Also see Alliance to End Lead Poisoning at www.aeclp.org.
|
|
