Lead Poisoning In Young Children

Children in the country are being poisoned from lead painting used on homes, schools and other products. Lead is a toxic substance that is harmful to people for any age, especially young children. When the lead is absorbed into the body, it can affect their health systems and cause damage to the brain, vital organs such as nerves, kidneys and blood. Lead exposure may also cause behavioral problems, like learning disabilities and delayed people’s development. Lead in painting also used to create toys, it ends up into young children’s mouths and absorb lead in their bodies. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), “around 25% of the housing in the United States may contain lead paint in hazardous levels, every
One of their newest discoveries is that very low levels of lead, once thought to be harmless, can be damaging over long periods of time. Even though a child seems healthy, he or she may have enough lead in the blood to cause chronic lead poisoning. In the late 1970s, the researchers found that even a small amount of lead that is absorbed in the body, although absorption doesn’t cause physical illness could still harm a child’s nervous systems and brain. Lead is a true poison that has no necessary role in the body. The lead looks a lot like a calcium, so it can sneak into the well-protected brain. Then it disrupts the movement and storage of calcium inside cells, which increase cells stress, and can lead to the death of neurons and other brain cells. Lead also affects other parts of the body, notably the cardiovascular system. Lead’s effects on the heart and blood vessels put people at higher risk for high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and stroke later in life. Blood vessels are more than just tubes that carry blood; they contain muscle cells that help them adjust to a changing environment. Just as in the brain, lead can be transported like calcium in vessel cells
considered lead poisoning is effective of human health, they establish political rules to try to stop lead poisoning. “In the 1970s, the government banned lead from paint and began phasing it out of gasoline, two major public health successes that lowered blood lead levels by about 80%. But the war has not yet been won. Forty years later, the CDC estimates that 500,000 children in the United States have blood lead levels above 5 µg/dl” (Gearing, 2016) Another way was that they take off the lead from ­­paint and gasoline after the lead exposure happened years ago. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) in the United States has repeatedly reduced the level of lead in blood that defines childhood lead poisoning. Thus, in the 1970s, the level was reduced to 40 µg/dl, and then to 30 µg/ dl. In the 1980s, it was reduced to 25 µg/d. Most recently, in the early 1990s, the CDC reduced the blood lead level of concern to 10 µg/dl, the level that remains to this day (World Health Organization). Also in the country Nigerian, the painting industry with “over 1000 enterprises produces estimated 40 million liters of lead paints used in the country annually (PMA). Domestic Decorative paints have 60% of the market share, Industrial 20%, Refinishing 10%, Wood finishing and Automotive have 5% each of the market share. From tests, most products show high levels of lead” (Alo, 2015). “In 2002, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) took two vital decisions