Lead Poisoning: A Global Epidemic
In Anka, Nigeria, 600 children have died of lead poisoning since 2010. Source: Doctors Without Borders Kenya
Lead contamination is a very grave occurrence that can have disastrous consequences. Lead poisoning is especially harmful to children, and can cause a number of issues both physically and cognitively. Symptoms such as behavioral problems, disabilities, reduction of IQ scores, health issues, and death are linked to high levels of lead consumption. Children often suffer the most from lead poisoning because the amount of lead a person can tolerant differs proportionately between adults and children. In Anka, Nigeria, 600 children have died since 2010, and hundreds of other children have suffered from epilepsy, brain damage, immobility, muteness, and other adverse effects from the lead contamination in the area. The lead contamination came from the soil, water, and food because of gold deposits in residential areas which are used for artisanal mining. Fortunately, as of March 2022, the amount of cases of lead poisoning in this area has significantly decreased. Additionally, 8,000 children in the affected mining communities have been screened for lead poisoning and more than 3,500 have received treatments to remove lead deposits from their blood. This recent win for this community came from the collaboration of the local government and Zamfara state health, MSF, OK International, and TerraGraphics International Foundation. Their work extended past the treatment and screening for lead poisoning in children to also include preventative measures such as excavating processed waste from the environment in water sources.
Anka displays how collaborative work for humanitarian goals cannot be understated for their lasting and beneficial impact. Unfortunately, Anka is not the only region that faces the dangers of lead contamination. Lead poisoning is an epidemic; the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 240 million people are overexposed to lead in the world. Globally one in three children have lead levels in their blood at five milligrams per deciliter, which are levels that experts at WHO consider alarming. In the U.S, cities such as Flint and Chicago also have suffered from lead contamination. The Flint Water Crisis began in 2014, and caused major concern for physical and behavioral problems for the children in the city. In Chicago, elevated levels of lead, sourced from tap water, were found in hundreds of homes. These examples within the U.S are indicative of a large problem that needs to be addressed on a global scale.
Lead poisoning’s gravity cannot be underestimated, it is potent and fatal, and has long term consequences that can extend past generations. Epigenetics, or the study of how the environment changes gene expression and then impacts inherited genes in future generations, in relation to lead shows the necessity of treating and preventing lead poisoning. Lead can remain in bones for decades, and recent research shows that lead-based alterations within a person can be passed on through their genetics.
In order to be treated for lead poisoning the available medicine is chelation, but this medicine is not always accessible for all. To counteract inaccessibility that may be caused by poverty or political conflicts in a region, there are three main strategies that experts suggest to employ in order to respond to this epidemic. The first strategy is to identify sources of possible contamination or high-risk sources, which can be dependent on the region the source is in because lead presence does not immediately indicate contamination. The second strategy is to eliminate or control identified lead sources. In order to control or eliminate sources there needs to be a collaborative approach from the respective government to put policies in place that secure the interests of the people while also using effective technology, such as soil remediation. The final recommended strategy is to monitor exposures and hazards, such as blood-lead testing for children. These strategies allow harm reduction in the global community, and the success in Anka can be linked to how the collaborative work between the government and aid groups implemented the aforementioned strategies.