Lead may harm school-age children more than babies

Lead is a notorious toxin.  Lead adversely affects brain development, causing learning problems, including decreased IQ. In addition to brain damage, lead affects the nervous system at very low levels.  It has long been thought young children and developing fetuses faced the highest risk from lead exposure.

A new article published in Environmental Health Perspectives challenges conventional wisdom about lead’s impact on a child’s first year of life. The study, reported in Mother Nature Network, concludes that lead exposure may be more harmful to school-age children than babies or toddlers.

Results show that lead levels at ages 5 & 6 were more predictive of IQ losses than levels at age 2. 

The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) reported that other recent studies have concluded that lead exposure during pregnancy – including the first trimester when many women are not even aware they are pregnant -  could have “lasting and possibly permanent effects” on a child’s IQ.

The significant and unacceptable impact on children's health from lead exposure is not contested.  This is unlike the situation with bisphenol A (BPA),  a toxic chemical found in some plastics that has been linked to diseases including breast and prostate cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and neurological problems, lowered sperm counts and early puberty. But the FDA says BPA is safe, parroting the policy  drafted by the American Chemistry Council.

So why is lead still a problem?  Is it a historic artifact from the days when humans didn't know better than to use a toxic chemical in their homes and household goods that diminished the IQ of their children? 

If only it were so.

Believe it or not, lead is still used in PVC products, toys, paints, baby bibs, candy and metal jewelry. CEH  has found lead in jewelry from gumball machines and drugstores. But it's not just the cheap stuff.  Even a $200 necklace from Saks Fifth Avenue contained high levels of lead.

Another source of lead contamination is wheel weights used on your car’s tires.  According to our colleagues at CHANGE, lead wheel weights are the largest source of new lead pollution, adding 500,000 pounds of lead into California waterways each year.

Wheel weights were banned by the European Union in 2005 and phaseouts have been initiated in Japan and Korea.  Many car makers are participating in a voluntary program established by the EPA, but California’s proposed ban on wheel weights may make them illegal.  SB 757 passed California’s Senate and is headed to the Assembly next.  (see CHANGE's website to follow this issue).

Lead paint remains the largest single source of lead exposure. Vice President Biden announced last week that $100 million dollars had been allocated for lead abatement in low-income housing from federal stimulus money.  The Vice President said:

"It's unacceptable that some 40 percent of homes in this country still contain lead-based paints, the majority of which are in low-income areas where homes have not been renovated in decades," he said. "If we are truly going to revitalize our communities and help families that are most vulnerable, we need to invest that money now."