Lead, a toxic chemical pose a vast range of dangers to children’s health. Pure lead is very toxic to people. Children of all races and ethnic origins are at risk of lead poisoning throughout the United States. In addition to renal disease, cardiovascular effects, and reproductive toxicity, lead may cause irreversible neurologic damage. Blood lead levels once considered safe are now considered hazardous, with no known threshold. Lead poisoning is a wholly preventable disease.
For a variety of reasons, children are more susceptible to the effects of chemical exposures than adults. Children live closer to the ground, maximizing their contact with toxic substances that collect indoors. The world outdoors also appear also appears considerably more poisonous when looked at from the perspective of childhood.
Children come into greater contact with dangerous chemicals simply because they eat more than adults in proportion to their body weight including more pesticides residues from fresh vegetables, fruits, and juices. The EPA classifies as possible carcinogens over
65 percent of the 560 millions pounds of herbicides and fungicides sprayed annually on the U.S. crops. The average child consumes four times the amount of these suspect chemicals than an adult (Setterberg and Shavelson, 1993).
15
Children prove more likely to encounter lead, an extremely dangerous element on a daily basis. This naturally occurring element is plentiful in our environment and virtually no one escape some exposure to it. Reducing lead exposure among infants, toddlers, and preschool children is particularly important because the developing nervous system is sensitive to lead toxicity. Although there has been a very dramatic decline in lead exposure among children, nearly 1.7 million children ages 1 to 5 have blood levels equal to or greater than 10’g/dL and cognitive development may be affected at levels about 10’g/dL. which makes it difficult to detect. Irritability, colic, distractibility and lethargy are all symptoms of progressive lead accumulation.
16
Higher levels or chronic exposure results in more severe symptoms such as kidney and nervous system damage. Lead accumulate primarily in the bones and other organs. There is currently no lead level believed to be safe for infants and young children. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) define blood lead levels of 10 mcg/dL as toxic. The previous level, set in 1985, was 25 mcg/dL. The federal definition was established in 1991 as evidence accumulated indicating that serious consequences occur in infants and young children at levels greater than 10 mcg/dL. In lead poisoning, there is a silent progression of nonspecific symptoms.
In 1988 a report to Congress from the Agency for toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a branch of the United States Public Health Service for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a branch of the United States Public Health Service indicated that more than three million children in the United States have levels of lead in their blood high enough to cause significant impairment of their neurological development.
17
According to the recently released lead toxicological profile for lead from Agency from Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the adverse health effects of lead is indicated by blood-levels ranging from change in blood pressure at 10ug/dl to severe retardation and even death at very high blood-lead levels of 100 ug/dL. For example lead will interfere with synthesis necessary for information of red blood cells, anemia, kidney damage, impaired reproduction function, interference with vitamin D metabolism, and
delayed neurological and physical development. For adult men, high blood lead can cause elevated blood pressure, hypertension, strokes, and heart attack. Pregnant women exposed to lead are at risk of complications in their pregnancies, shorter gestational period, and damage to the fetuses.
18
Since even low levels of lead can damage hearing and interfere with a child’s developing system, it is not surprising that children exposed to lead at an early age prove seven times more likely to exhibit learning disabilities. Lead poisoning in children has also been linked to convulsions, brain degeneration, and death. Centers for Disease Control asserts that “lead poisoning is the number one environmental problem facing America’s children. Exposing children to excessive levels of pesticides is impairing their health, eroding their mental abilities, and shortening their lives.”