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- Nearly 1 million children living in the United States have lead levels in their blood that are high enough to cause irreversible damage to their health.
- According to recent CDC estimates, about 890,000 children (ages 1-5) living in the United States have elevated blood lead levels.
- The primary sources of lead exposure for most children are deteriorating lead-based paint, lead contaminated dust, and lead contaminated residential soil.
- Lead poisoning is an environmental and public health hazard of global proportions. Children and adults in virtually every region of the world are being exposed to unsafe levels of lead in the environment, the home, the community, and the workplace.
- Lead occurs naturally in the Earth's crust; however, when ingested or inhaled, it is highly toxic to humans of all ages.
- Lead is most hazardous to young children, whose developing brains and nervous systems are particularly vulnerable to lead. Low levels of exposure in children can produce permanent nervous system damage, including reduction in intelligence and attention span, reading and learning disabilities, and behavioral problems. Very high levels of lead exposure can cause mental retardation, coma, convulsions, and death.
- Poor and disadvantaged populations are more vulnerable to lead poisoning because poor nourishment will increase the amount of ingested lead that is absorbed by the body. In addition, in many societies, the poor and disadvantaged are more likely to live in the vicinity of lead-polluting industries, and live in older, substandard housing, which is more likely to contain deteriorating lead-based paint and (as a result) lead-contaminated dust.
- Women are also particularly vulnerable to lead because studies have shown that lead absorbed in the bones during a woman's lifetime can be leached back into the blood during pregnancy (also exposing the fetus) and menopause.
- Lead poisoning is entirely preventable. The link between identified sources of lead in the environment and human exposure is well known and well documented. The steps to prevent lead poisoning are clear - stop ongoing and unnecessary uses of lead in consumer products and abate lead hazards from the reservoir of past and dispersive uses. Workable control measures and substitute products exist for virtually all sources of lead.
- Lead poisoning costs society up to $45,000 per building for each decade that building codes are not strictly enforced, according to a study issued by the Harvard School of Public Health earlier this month. www.thecrimson.com
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