It is highly alarming that Bangladesh ranks fourth in the world when it comes to lead poisoning in children.
United Nations Children’s fund (UNICEF) along with the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) and the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) after running tests found that over 35 million children in the country have dangerously high lead levels in their blood.
We need to keep this in mind that no level of lead is present in the blood of children is safe.
According to experts, lead in children’s blood affects their brain development and almost all of their organs.
In the case of elderly people, lead in the blood causes cardiovascular diseases while for pregnant women, it affects their unborn children.
The lead mixed in water, soil, and air enters the human body through food.
The risk of children coming in contact with poisonous substances keeps rising due to the increase of heavy metal pollution in the environment from rapid urbanisation and industrialisation.
To create a lead-free environment, it is essential to detect lead poisoning and to seal off the ways of coming in contact with lead.
It must be ensured that every single child can grow up in an environment free of lead and poisonous metals. UNICEF has agreed to provide assistance in this regard.
It has talked about adopting a multifaceted action plan to take measures against lead pollution and to reinforce the capacity of testing laboratories in the health and environment sector for testing the presence of heavy metal.
However, the main task must be carried out by the government.
A research run by UNICEF and the environmental organisation Pure Earth stated that there are 5 micrograms of lead per decilitre of blood in every single body of 800 million children around the world.
This leads to the development of vital organs like the brain, nerves, heart and lungs in children.
Experts say that when lead enters the human body, it doesn’t get out of the system easily.
Lead usually gets absorbed in bones and teeth of the human body.
So there’s no alternative to scientific use of lead if we want to free of its danger.
Thus mobilising public awareness about the sources of lead, harmful effects of this material, remedies and the ways to prevent lead infection would produce good results.
Strict enforcement of law and monitoring can prevent lead from getting mixed in children’s blood.