Many countries have achieved an impressive reduction in lead poisoning

Lead is an invisible pollutant. But one that is toxic to human health, and has large impacts on cognitive function, learning and decision-making. It’s particularly harmful when children are exposed at a young age – these impacts can be irreversible.

Thankfully many countries have made great progress against lead pollution. In the chart we see the decline in lead concentrations in the blood of children in the United States. This dates from the late 1970s onwards.

In 1978, the average concentration in children aged one-to-five years old was 15 µg/dL. Today the US CDC sets a target threshold for every child to have concentrations lower than 3.5 µg/dL. So, average concentrations were more than four times above acceptable levels. And some children had exposure levels up to 30 µg/dL – more than eight times too high.

This means most children in the US in the 1970s were suffering from lead poisoning.

But since then we have seen an impressive decline. By far the biggest impact was the phase-out of leaded gasoline through the 1970s and 1980s. This was the largest source of lead. By 1990, average levels were below 5 µg/dL (although some children were still exposed to levels well above 10 µg/dL).

This decline continued by tackling other common sources of lead; the primary focus of efforts since then has been on eliminating lead from paints used in households. By 2016, the median level was just 0.7 µg/dL – a 95% decrease from 1978.

This progress has been mirrored across the world. By 2021, every country in the world had phased out leaded gasoline in road vehicles. This means many will have seen the impressive drop in lead pollution that we see for the US.[1]

Yet, in many low-to-middle income countries, other sources of this toxin remain. To make sure this progress continues we need to eliminate lead in products such as paints, pipes, and improve the management of electronic waste.

Keep reading at Our World in Data

Endnotes

1] We see this in data in Germany, for example. Hagner, C. (1999). [Historical review of European gasoline lead content regulations and their impact on German industrial markets.

Where this page came from

This page was imported from Our World in Data. “Many countries have achieved an impressive reduction in lead poisoning” by Hannah Ritchie (January 11, 2022), published by Our World in Data under CC BY 4.0. Changed here: set as a page, its interactive charts shown as pictures. Data from third parties keeps its own licence.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.