'Silent Epidemic': Nearly 1 In 3 Kids Exposed To Damaging Levels Of Lead
Related: The Toxic Truth: Children’s Exposure to Lead Pollution Undermines a Generation of Future Potential (UNICEF)
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Source: NPR
'Silent Epidemic': Nearly 1 In 3 Kids Exposed To Damaging Levels Of Lead
July 29, 2020 8:07 PM ET
MARIA GODOY
How many children in the world have been exposed to dangerous levels of lead?
That's a pressing question that has had no definitive answer until now. About 1 in 3 children have been exposed to lead at levels shown to damage their health and cognitive development, according to a groundbreaking report that is the first to document the problem globally.
The report, produced by UNICEF in partnership with Pure Earth, a global nonprofit that tackles toxic pollution in poor communities, "is the first report of its kind and it's important," says Katarzyna Kordas, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of Buffalo who studies the effects of toxic metal exposures in children and was not involved in the study. Prior to this, she says, "there have actually been no studies to systematically and comprehensively estimate the extent of children's exposure to lead globally."
The new report finds that some 800 million children worldwide have blood lead levels at or above 5 micrograms per deciliter – a level considered cause for intervention by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (There is no safe level of lead exposure in children.) Among other harms, lead exposure at that level has been linked to lasting decreases in cognition, including a 3-to-5 point drop in scores on intelligence tests, notes study co-author Nicholas Rees, a policy specialist at UNICEF working on climate, energy and the environment. He says it's "incredibly alarming" to realize that up to a third of the world's children could be facing such potential hits to IQ.
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Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/07/29/896888484/silent-epidemic-nearly-1-in-3-kids-exposed-to-damaging-levels-of-lead
