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What You Need To Know About Lead Poisoning

Lead is a very useful metal and a staple in our day-to-day lives here in Virginia. However, if high doses of lead are ingested into the system of a human, the consequences of lead can be dire: brain damage, behavioral issues, kidney problems, mental retardation, learning disabilities, attention span problems, delayed development, and even death. The problems can present themselves even more seriously in children.

Before we understood the dangers of lead, we used it in many products: lead pipes were installed in our houses, lead was included in gasoline to make engines run more smoothly. Lead was added to paint in order to make it last longer and flow more smoothly.

Today, lead can still be a problem, despite our knowledge of its dangers. In fact, almost five percent of children aged 1 to 5 have elevated levels of lead in their systems. Although we are familiar with the dangers of children eating lead paint chips, lead paint can also produce lead dust that can enter the air and affect both children and adults.

Lead poisoning can also result from contaminated water or air - those living near a lead smelter may be at danger of lead air pollution, while the Environmental Protection Agency reports that 40 million people in the United State drink water with high levels of lead.

Most recently, the lead poisoning controversy has turned to toys containing lead, especially toys made overseas. Recent tests by the Ecology Center revealed that 35 percent of the most popular children's toys contained dangerous amounts of lead above federal recall levels. Only 20 percent of the 1,200 products contain no lead at all. In the last two years, dozens of toys, many of them manufactured in China, have been recalled for safety reasons.

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