LEAD
POISONING GUIDE FOR FAMILIES
Contents
Lead and your family’s
health
Who is at risk
Pregnant and breastfeeding
women
Young children are
at greater risk
Workers in lead
industries
Home renovators
People living near
lead industries or main roads
People whose hobbies
use lead
Sources and exposures
The danger of lead
paint
Lead-contaminated
dust
Lead in the workplace
Other sources of
lead
Exposure - how lead
gets into people
Health Effects and
Symptoms
‘Mystery’ symptoms
- what to look for
Behavioral and social
problems
Symptoms of exposure
to different lead levels
Testing for lead
What you can do
Reduce or remove
exposure to lead
Stop lead hazards
from happening
Eating well
Don’t do-it-yourself
Reduce your exposure
at work
Ask yourself
Lead and your
family’s health
Lead is a metal
which, because it is cheap and useful, is found in many products and
in many places in the environment.
Lead entering our
bodies may cause serious long-term health problems, especially for young
children. So it’s important that you know about lead poisoning and how
it is caused, -- especially if you are a parent, or plan to be one.
You can take many
simple actions that will protect you and your family from lead.
Who is at risk?
While lead can affect
anybody, some people in the community are more at risk than others.
This can be due to:
• your age
• your health (particularly
if you are pregnant or have a poor diet)
• your job or hobbies
• your home (its
age and condition)
• where you live
(such as near lead industries)
Why each of these
groups is at greater risk is discussed below. Some people may be exposed
to lead in more ways than one. For example, a person may work in a lead
industry, such as battery breaking or making jewelry, and also may live
in a home that contains lead paint.
Pregnant and
breastfeeding women
Pregnant and breastfeeding
women can pass lead on to their babies. Care must be taken to avoid
or reduce exposure to lead during pregnancy and breastfeeding. All people
store lead in their body, - mainly in the bones. As women’s bodies change
during pregnancy, previously stored lead can be released from the bones
and affect the health of the developing fetus. This can be serious if
the woman has high lead levels and is not eating enough calcium, iron
or zinc. There is some evidence that lead can increase the risk of pre-term
delivery, low birth weight, miscarriage and stillbirth.
Young children
are at greater risk
The toxic effects
of lead are particularly damaging to the fetus and children under four.
This is because:
- their developing
brain and nervous systems are more vulnerable
- children absorb
a much higher proportion of lead than adults if it is swallowed,
up to 50 per cent
compared to 10 per cent in adults
- normal behaviors
in young children (e.g. hand-to-mouth activity, crawling, chewing
on objects) make
them more likely to find and swallow lead if their surroundings
are contaminated.
- Children who
constantly eat non-food substances (e.g. dirt) are at even greater
risk.
Workers in lead
industries
People with jobs
where lead is used are at most risk as they can be exposed to high levels
of lead over a long period of time. They can breathe in or accidentally
eat lead-contaminated food, water etc. Smokers can breathe in lead dust
that has settled on their cigarettes. If you work in a lead industry,
you may bring lead dust home on your clothes or tools, or in your car,
and contaminate your house and family.
Work hazards
Occupations most
at risk include:
• automotive body
or radiator repairers
• battery breakers,
recyclers or manufacturers
• brass or copper
foundry workers
• bridge, tunnel
and tower workers
• building, construction
and demolition workers (including painters, plumbers and pipe
fitters)
• cable manufacturing
and splicing
• ceramic and jewellery
workers
• lead mining, smelting
and processing
• paint, pigments
and shellac factory workers
• petrol refinery/service
station workers
• scrap metal merchants
Home renovators
Many painted houses
and buildings contain lead paint. White and bright yellows, oranges
and red paint often contain lead. Some types of house paints currently
manufactured in India have been found to contain over 20% lead. Some
types of industrial or special use paints (road marking, marine, automotive,
sign painting etc) may contain even higher lead levels than those used
in homes - check the label. If you’re renovating a home which was painted
with bright coloured paint and which may contain lead, adults, children
or pets can easily breathe in or swallow lead dust and particles if
precautions are not taken.
People living
near lead industries or main roads
People who live
near industries which produce or use lead can be exposed to more lead
than others may, since lead dust and other emissions in the air may
have fallen in their homes and gardens. People living or working near
heavy traffic locations may be at higher risk, as exhaust from leaded
petrol can contaminate the environment. Inhaling fumes from leaded petrol
causes increases in blood lead level across the whole population. However,
reducing the use of leaded petrol and reducing amounts of lead in the
petrol will result in a decline in such risks, especially to people
who live near main urban thoroughfares.
Sources and exposures
Lead is widely used
and found in many common consumer products and many places in the environment.
Lead from such sources can enter and contaminate your home and surroundings.
Dust can be tracked into homes and yards from the street. It can contaminate
soft furnishings like carpets, blankets, soft chairs, and a baby’s soft
toys. It can build up over the years in the soil in your garden or in
the dust in your ceiling. It can also remain as paint, coating your
doors, windowsills, children’s furniture such as cots or children’s
toys.
The danger of
lead paint
Many cases of acute
lead poisoning in children admitted to children’s hospitals in recent
years have been attributed to home renovation activities that disturb
lead paint. Lead becomes a danger when activities deal with existing
lead paint or dust in the house, or create new lead dust hazards. Unsafe
renovations where old lead paint is removed or prepared for painting
are the most common cause of lead poisoning. Open-flame torches create
dangerous fumes. Dry sanding without water creates lead dust. Fumes
and dust can be breathed in, accidentally eaten, and they can contaminate
the house, its contents and the surrounding area. You can do renovations
safely if you take simple precautions and use the right equipment.
Lead-contaminated
dust
Many older homes
and buildings have lead dust in their ceiling cavities, cavities in
walls and under the floor. This dust has built up over many years from
many sources such as:
• industrial pollution
from power stations, incinerators, car repair sites, mines and smelters
• exhaust emissions
from the use of leaded petrol
• unsafe renovations
and demolitions
• pollution from
wood burning or coal-burning.
Demolition of walls,
floors or ceilings can disturb lead paint and dust. Any work that disturbs
dust may be hazardous. Once the dust is released into living spaces
it can contaminate soft furnishings, carpets, soil, food and water and
is very difficult to remove.
There are many simple
precautions you can take to reduce the hazard from lead dust.
Lead in the workplace
As mentioned earlier,
breathing in lead particles or fumes is a particular hazard for workers
in many industries which use lead or lead-based products. Adults may
ingest lead through eating, smoking, chewing betel or nail-biting on
lead contaminated hands, particularly after work which involve melting
or casting lead, or work such as burning, scraping or sanding lead paint
or lead objects which involve disturbance or creation of lead dusts
or lead fumes. Parents working in these industries can accidentally
‘take home’ lead dust on their work clothes, hair, skin and vehicles
and pass it on to their children.
Other sources
of lead
Petrol
Continuing use of
lead in petrol exposes the entire community to lead through car emissions
in the air. However, reducing the use of leaded petrol and reducing
amounts of lead in the petrol will result in a decline in lead in the
air we breathe, especially to people who live near main urban thoroughfares.
Lead also can enter the body when leaded petrol comes into contact with
the skin.
Food
Food
may be contaminated in these ways:
- Soil, pesticide
or zinc fertiliser containing lead may be taken up into a root plant
or deposited on leafy plants. Lead emissions from cars or industry
may be deposited on plants grown in home or market gardens near main
roads.
- Foods or beverages,
particularly acidic foods such as pineapples, pickles and tomatoes,
may be packed in cans with lead-solder side seams or processed by
equipment containing lead soldering. Foods or beverages may be stored,
cooked, reheated or served in lead-glazed ceramics or porcelain, cookpots
‘tinned’ with a lead-tin mixture, brass cooking or serving vessels,
or leaded crystal or glass. Spices and food colouring may also be
contaminated with lead from petrol emissions, lead pigments or painted
storage containers.
Water
Lead
in drinking water may not be a common source of lead in India. The major
source is the corrosion of leaded plumbing materials in the water supply
and household plumbing. Contamination can arise from lead connectors,
lead and PVC piping, lead-soldered joins in copper and brass faucets
and other fittings containing lead.
Water
from lead-soldered water tanks or run-off systems from roofing with
lead-based paint also pose a risk, especially in areas near mining and
smelting sites where dust and emissions could add to the problem.
Consumer products
containing lead
Some consumer products
can contain lead:
• old toys, soldiers
and model cars
• some imported
painted jewelry, buttons etc
• certain Ayurvedic
and Indian system medicines and remedies
• some cosmetics,
including kohl, surma, henna, hair dyes and treatments
Exposure - how
lead gets into people
Lead gets into our
bodies when we breathe in air which has lead fumes or dust in it, or
if we eat food or drink water which contains lead. If breathed in or
eaten often enough, small amounts of lead can build up in the body and
cause health problems for you and your family. Normal behaviors in young
children (e.g. hand-to-mouth activity, crawling, chewing on objects)
makes them more likely to find and swallow lead if their surroundings
are contaminated, particularly with lead dust or lead contaminated soil.
Older children may deliberately swallow soil, paint flakes or other
objects or suck fingers or toys which have come into contact with contaminated
soil and dust. They can suck or chew windowsills, skirting boards and
doorjambs coated in lead paint or dust.
Adults can swallow
lead through eating, smoking or nail biting with lead contaminated hands,
particularly following work activities that might leave lead dust on
their hands or work areas. If you smoke, don’t smoke or carry cigarettes
in the work area, as they can be contaminated with lead dust that you
can breathe in when smoking. If your hands might be contaminated with
lead dust, wash hands before smoking to stop lead entering your mouth.
Health effects
and symptoms
Exposure to lead
can have a broad range of health effects depending on the amount of
lead and the length of exposure. Generally, the greater the exposure,
the greater the impact on health, though children will be more affected
at lower levels of exposure than adults.
‘Mystery’ symptoms
- what to look for
The symptoms of
lead poisoning may not be present, or may be mistaken for some other
health or behaviour problem. They may be something of a mystery. The
signs of high lead levels are similar in children and adults, but children
show symptoms at lower levels than adults do. If your child does display
some of these symptoms, answer the questions on section ‘Ask Yourself’,
check out your home or work environment for lead hazards and ask your
doctor.
Behavioral and
social problems
Excessive lead in
children aged up to four years may cause learning disabilities, slowed
growth, poor hearing and behavioural problems like hyperactivity and
aggressiveness.
High levels of lead
in children over four, teenagers and adults have been linked to poor
performance at school
and work, lower IQ, reading and vocabulary difficulties, problems with
coordination and increased absenteeism.
Testing for lead
It is often difficult
to see that symptoms of ill health are due to lead. Tell your doctor
about any possible exposure to lead which you or your family may have
experienced. Answer the questions in section ‘Ask Yourself’. If you
think there is a risk to you or your family, have a blood test - it
is the best way to check for lead poisoning. The test shows how much
lead is in the blood. If you suspect, have a blood test of your children
if they:
• are aged up to
four years and live in areas where lead could be present
• have brothers
or sisters with high blood lead levels or if you work with lead
• have pica (habitual
eating of non-food items e.g. dirt)
• are aged up to
four years and live near an active lead mine, smelter, battery recycling
plant or other
industry likely to release lead
• live near heavy
road traffic areas
• have developmental
delays.
As an adult, you
should also have a blood test if you have any of the symptoms above,
especially if you work in industries or have hobbies which use lead.
Ask your doctor or health care professional about blood tests for lead.
The dangers of
lead
Exposure to lead
is linked to:
Pregnant women
and unborn children
• pre-term delivery
• low birth weight
• miscarriage and
stillbirth.
Children
• damage to the
brain and nervous system in children up to age 4
• impaired growth
and IQ
• poor hearing
• learning difficulties
• hyperactivity
and aggressiveness
• social and behavioral
problems.
Adults
• loss of libido,
infertility
• aggressiveness
and higher blood pressure
• loss of appetite,
constipation
• anemia
• in severe cases,
paralysis, fits, swelling of the brain, seizures, coma and death.
Symptoms of exposure
to different lead levels
The table below
shows the symptoms caused by ‘moderate’, ‘severe’ and ‘medical emergency’
levels of lead in the blood.
What you can
do
The best solution
to reducing lead hazards is to avoid being exposed in the first place.
If you are already
being exposed then you must reduce your exposure. Find sources of hazards
in the home and at work and eliminate them. Reducing hazards reduces
exposure and risk.
Reduce or remove
exposure to lead
This means stopping
your or your children’s contact with lead; here are some suggestions:
- Reduce or remove
exposure to lead. This means preventing children or adults from having
access to sources of lead or hazard situations. For example, move
work involving lead out of dwellings and away from food preparation
and living areas, replace older cooking pots where lead/tin solder
may have been used on recent repairs, move children or pregnant women
away from sources of exposure to lead, and discourage children from
sucking dirty fingers or toys.
- Reduce or remove
the hazard. This means addressing existing contamination and removing
the hazard itself; for example, washing food preparation surfaces
before cooking or making meals, cooking spices and covering cookware
to prevent dust accumulation, replacing or covering contaminated soil
with organic materials or other covering.
- Prevent the creation
of lead hazards. Don’t bring lead hazard activities such as battery
breaking or jewelry work into living areas at home.
When renovating
or disturbing lead paint
• Move out pregnant
women and children.
• Don’t use blowtorches
or sanders on lead paint.
• Contain lead paint
dust and debris within work areas.
• Protect yourself
with safety masks or coveralls.
Old lead paint
• Test paint in
your house or assume it is present.
• Check your house
for peeling or deteriorating paint.
• Protect yourself
and your family when disturbing lead paint.
• Prepare the work
area and use the right equipment.
• Dispose of waste
and clean up safely.
Stop lead hazards
from happening
If you’re renovating
an older home, a test for the presence of old lead paint will help you
prevent hazards. If you’re not sure or not planning to test it, then
assume the paint has lead in it and take the necessary precautions.
Children and pregnant
women should be out of the home when lead removal is carried out, or
when unsafe renovations which may disturb lead paint are going on.
Other things you
can do include:
• remove or seal
off soft furnishings before renovation or paint removal work and seal
off
work areas with
plastic and taping to prevent contamination with paint flakes and dust
• ensure workers
clean the work area daily during renovations and thoroughly clean your
home and dispose
of debris before children or pregnant women return
• prevent the use
of blowtorches, arc welders or high temperature heat guns which burn
paint and create
lead fumes.
• avoid using blasting
or power equipment if possible. Power sanders create large amounts
of dust which can
contaminate the house and yard. If this equipment is to be used, the
surface should
be wet during the work and dust contained within the work area.
Eating well
Lead is absorbed
more easily if your diet lacks essential minerals such as iron, calcium
and zinc. To reduce the amount of lead the body absorbs if it is inhaled
or swallowed, make sure your family - especially young children and
pregnant women - has a diet low in fat and rich in:
• calcium (milk,
cheese, yogurt, nuts - especially almonds)
• iron (eggs, lean
red meat and poultry, liver, fish, cereal, beans, peas, lentils, dark
green
leafy vegetables)
• zinc (wheat bran,
yeast products, red meat and liver, oysters and crab).
Too much fat also
aids lead absorption (but there is no evidence that a low fat diet minimizes
absorption). Frequent nutritious meals are important for children. Food
in the stomach decreases the absorption of lead from non-food sources.
Reduce your exposure
at work
Employers should
provide workers with a lead safe workplace and employees need to be
aware of the hazard. If you work in a lead industry:
• wash hands, face
and hair, and change clothes before you finish work
• if you smoke,
don’t carry cigarettes or smoke in the work area, as you can breathe
in
lead dust in the
cigarette smoke; wash hands before smoking, to stop lead on your hands
entering your mouth
• wash work clothes
separately from all other clothes and rinse the washing machine
afterwards
• contact an occupational
health specialist if you’re concerned.
Fix up your yard
• Keep young children
away from bare soil where lead work such as battery breaking or
jewelry repair
has taken place.
• Remove, turn over
or mulch contaminated soil to prevent exposure.
• Cover bare areas
of soil that may be contaminated with lead.
• Move children’s
play areas to uncontaminated parts of the yard.
• Test the soil.
Ask yourself…
If you think you
or your family may have a health problem caused by lead,
ask yourself the
following questions.
About your neighborhood
1. Do you live near
an active lead mine, smelter, battery recycling
plant or other
industry likely to release lead?
2. Is your home
on land which was previously used for industrial
purposes that may
have involved lead?
3. Is your home
near a major road or traffic intersection?
4. Are car parks
or garages located close to entrances or windows
in your home?
5. Have older structures
nearby - such as bridges, water tanks
or towers - been
renovated recently?
About your family
and friends
6. Does your child
regularly visit a house with peeling or chipping
paint (schools
or homes of baby-sitters or relatives.)
7. Does your child
have pica, or chew or eat non-food items, or suck
his/her thumb excessively?
8. Do you or family
members have a job or hobby which involves
exposure to lead?
9. Do you have pets
(especially furry ones)?
About your house
10. When was your
home built or painted? Is lead paint likely to have been used?
11. Have unsafe
renovations been carried out recently?
12. Has landfill
been used in the grounds of the home?
13. Does your home
have bare areas of soil or sandpits where lead work may have taken
place?
14. Have unsafe
renovations taken place in your home without a thorough clean-up being
carried out?
If you answer Yes
to any of these questions ask your doctor if a blood lead test is necessary
for you or your children.
Want more information?
Ask your doctor
or health care professional if you want to know more about illness from
lead.
This has been
adapted from ‘A guide for healthcare providers’, a publication of the
Lead Reference Center, New South Wales Environment Protection Authority,
Australia.
