Urgent steps needed to protect Dhaka’s children from toxic lead sites
City Desk :
Immediate action is urgently needed to shut down or control industrial sites in Dhaka that are leaking toxic lead, as they are putting thousands of children at serious health risk.
A new study led by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (Icddr,b) has revealed alarmingly high levels of lead in children’s blood, raising fresh concerns about industrial pollution in the capital’s densely populated neighbourhoods, states UNB.
Icddr,b organised a discussion titled ‘Fighting Lead Poisoning in Bangladesh – Progress Made, Challenges Ahead’ to highlight the widespread and preventable burden of lead exposure in Bangladesh and explore opportunities for urgent intervention.
Dr Tahmeed Ahmed, Executive Director of icddr,b said, “Lead poisoning silently steals our children’s potential, damaging their brain development and nutritional status, with consequences that will hold back Bangladesh’s future. We must act decisively to eliminate these sources of exposure so that every child can grow up healthy, smart, and ready to contribute to our nation.”
The event began with an overview of Icddr,b’s lead prevention efforts by Dr Sarah Salway, Senior Director, Health Systems and Population Studies Division (HSPSD).
She underscored how lead exposure remains a major but overlooked public health threat in Bangladesh, particularly for children living near polluting industries.
Saying that lead, a toxic heavy metal, has been silently harming the health of millions, especially young children and pregnant women, Dr Sarah said there is no safe level of lead in the blood, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers blood lead levels above 35 µg/L (micrograms per litre) to be a cause for concern, especially in young children.
According to Unicef, Bangladesh is now the 4th most lead-impacted country globally, with 36 million children suffering from elevated blood lead levels [1] Research presented at the event revealed that in Dhaka slums from 2009-2012, 87per cent of children under 2 had blood lead levels >50 µg/L, strongly associated with stunting [2].
Professor Steve Luby, Professor of Medicine, Stanford University and a former Director at Icddr,b highlighted how lead exposure severely impairs brain development, causing IQ loss and cognitive deficits that can permanently affect future generations.
He said, “Lead enters the body in multiple ways, through the air we breathe, the food we eat, contact with contaminated soil or dust, and even during pregnancy through the placenta.
These exposure pathways make it nearly impossible to avoid unless we address the root causes in our environment, especially those we have the ability to manage and control.”
