Every year thousands of children and adults are accidentally poisoned by lead. Childhood lead poisoning is one of the most common health problems in the United States today. The tragedy is that all lead poisoning is entirely preventable, if you know the source and precautions to take. Enough is now known about the sources and pathways of lead exposure and about ways of preventing this exposure to begin the efforts to permanently erase this disease. The purpose of writing this unit is to raise the level of awareness on some environmental problems and how to prevent them.
The unit addresses the history of lead, where lead comes from, harmful effects of lead, sources and pathways of lead exposure, lead in paint, gasoline and water. It also looks at testing for lead in water and lead prevention. The unit has been written to address the needs of students in grades five through eight (5-8). The unit has included in it a pre-and post-test, vocabulary, lesson plans, a field trip, teacher resources, appendices and a bibliography.
The goal of the unit is to challenge teachers and students to become part of the solution to the problems and not part of the problems to our prevention of lead poisoning in children.
(Recommended for Earth Science, Grades 7-8)
