A used car battery at home is a leading cause of intellectual disability, kidney failure, and anaemia in the human blood?
Children born around paint manufacturing plants, dumpsites where Used Lead-Acid Batteries (ULAB) are dumped, and near motor vehicle garages, are not likely to achieve their full potential as lead poisoning may even lead to fatality?
These are the questions reproductive health, children health experts, policy makers and chemical scientists are asking during this week as the world marks the 12th International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week of Action.
It emerged that the prevalence of lead poisoning across the globe especially in poor countries such as Kenya has remained the same 11 years since the campaign to eradicate the vice started in 2013.
It’s perennially estimated that 1 in 3 children, accounting for 800 million in developing countries bear the brunt of lead poisoning exposure, with about 1 million deaths annually. In Kenya alone, 2.9 million Kenyan children are exposed to high levels of lead more than 5 micrograms and 320, 000 more than 10 micrograms.
Regulatory action
“Lead exposure has several sources and requires a multi-sectoral approach to have strategies that support generation of comprehensive data that will encourage policy formulation and regulatory action,” said UoN Vice Chancellor, Prof Margaret Jesang’ Hutchinson.
Lead poisoning, Prof Hutchinson said has caused severe effects to children and adults, including miscarriage in pregnant women and birth of children with lower Intelligence Quotient (IQ), a situation that has remained constant.
As the world commemorates the 12th international lead poisoning prevention week of action, the ministry of health is looking into a review of laws on chemicals that harm the environment, including lead, as it emerges that about 600,000 children are affected intellectually every year.
According to Public Health and Professional Standards PS Mary Muthoni, the government is looking at various interventions, seeking to change the tide of lead poisoning with a total of 132 sites located in 8 regions, namely Central, Coast, Eastern, Nairobi Area, North-Eastern, Nyanza, Rift Valley, Western, identified as toxic.
“We have identified seven counties that have recorded slightly high levels of lead in the soil,” the PS said yesterday during a media engagement in Nairobi. The hotspot areas include; Uasin- Gishu, Naivasha in Nakuru County, GiKomba and Dandora dumpsite in Nairobi; Kisumu, Nyahururu in Nyandarua, Kajiado, and Changamwe in Mombasa.
“One of the interventions is the support on the ban of asbestos roof by the ministry of environment, as the department of public health now demands a better disposal so as to avert a situation that may cause more harm,” she said.
Accordingly, Muthoni said, the government will be seeking, in conjunction with the ministry of environment, to crackdown on those using material rich in lead as it seeks to reduce the dangers immensely.
“While lead poisoning can affect people of all ages, it is our children who bear the brunt of its consequences.
“Their growing bodies absorb more lead, and the damage to their developing brains is often irreversible,” said the PS, arguing that for the children, lead poisoning means lost potential, reduced opportunities, and a future filled with challenges that could have been prevented.
It emerged that lead exposure can stem from peeling paint in old public buildings, old homes and old schools, lead in soil, lead in old lead water pipes, lead in toys, cosmetic and other consumer products.
“Our urban poor resource constrained communities are more often than not exposed or are vulnerable to lead exposure especially in areas where lead batteries are recycled,” Muthoni noted, appealing to the stakeholders involved in the weeklong events, to establish more evidence to inform policy for action.
