Lead poisoning with children through the environment and toys

Lead is a heavy metal poison found in polluted environments, in materials for making toys for children and everyday items. This is a form of formidable health damage for children but difficult to see, difficult to detect, except when acute poisoning, but it was too late.

Lead and lead poisoning for children

Children who have a habit of sniffing, sucking on painted toys have a higher risk of getting lead than other children 3-4 times because of lead in the paint component is quite high.

We know that the average amount of lead dust in urban air is about 1 mg / m ³ , which people want or not to inhale 1.5-20 mg / day. In rural areas, this concentration is lower, at about 0.1-0.2 mg / m3 and humans there must inhale a lead dust amount of 1.5-4.0 mg / day. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) regulations, the limit of lead dust in the workplace must be less than 0.01 mg / m ^{3 of} air, while in residential areas it must be less than 0.005 mg / m ³ .

However, lead dust in the air of many industrial zones is much higher than permitted. Along the roads with average traffic is not high, but at times of traffic congestion or rush hour, the outbreak is quite high. Lead dust comes from the smoke of leaded cars and motorbikes, although nowadays, no lead gasoline is used, but lead dust is not significantly reduced.

When children inhale, at low concentrations of 1mg / m3, only within 1 day (then stop contacting) do not get poisoned immediately, but only manifest after a few weeks. If entering the body at a concentration of 0.1 mg / m3 for several consecutive days, it will be chronic poisoning.

We know that children are very sensitive to lead because their nervous system is weak and their ability to discharge is poor. However, when lead contamination through food route is difficult to detect, because in children, the rate of feed calculated on body weight is quite large (many times higher than adults), so it is difficult to detect. For example, it has been calculated that the average amount of lead-contaminated food for children is 50-150 mg / day (compared with adults, 100-200 mg / day). And, it is 4 times more likely for children to get lead through food than adults. If the amount of poisoning, if swallowed 100 mg of lead sulphate salt / kg of body for many days, the body can be chronic poisoning.

Children who often suck their hands or rub their hands in their mouths are 4-5 times more likely to get lead than normal children. The surroundings are full of materials and the air is often contaminated with lead. Even the tools and toys for children have very eye-catching paint, but they contain large amounts of lead. Children who have a habit of kissing and sucking on painted toys are three to four times more likely to get lead than others because of the high content of lead.

For example, use primer paint, can contain 30,000- 60,000mg / kg paint solution. Surfaces of blister materials, tools, furniture, and paint cabinets are at high risk of causing lead infection, even if the surface is intact, painted toys are also contaminated with lead. Currently, the standard for paint for toys used in the US must be less than 2,500mg / kg of paint, and less than 5,000 mg / kg for paint in the United States.

More harmful, in rural areas, children find lead from many sources, recast themselves into flat lead to make a fight in the original. Or they also melted lead on the stove, then cooled, cast into marbles to hit balls on the ground; or the children of their parents cast lead to draw fishing line, fish net; or the children have to work in the battery manufacturing facility, car treatment, the children live near cast iron, lead casting, copper, handicrafts . These jobs always make children exposed and lead Through hands, mouths, especially when lead is molded, lead poison gas infects the body very quickly, can cause poisoning for children.

Therefore, parents should not let children touch and play with batteries or broken batteries. There have been many parents who did not anticipate its risks of poisoning children, but chronic poisoning, slowly absorbing, then accumulating and exaggerating biology to a certain limit will cause cancer, anemia. For children because lead has a characteristic of lying back in the body for a long time, it is possible to have a strong impact on young brain cells.

The study also tells us that lead in topsoil has 0.5-5.0 mg / kg of soil. Children who shed on land easily get lead in a chronic way. Studies have shown that the ability of children to lead pollution by way of food is 4-5 times higher than that of adults.

On the other hand, people observed and found that, on average, each cigarette contained 4.0-12.0 mg of lead, and an average of 20% of that lead was absorbed by smokers through tobacco smoke. Thus, if a person smoked 20 cigarettes a day, he would be absorbed into his body 1-5 mg / day. Reliable studies also show that children with drug-addicted parents are 4-6 times more likely to have lead poisoning than children whose parents are not addicted to secondhand smoke.

Maybe sudden death from lead poisoning

Lead is a heavy metal (density greater than 5Kg / dm ³ ) is highly toxic to the brain, can cause sudden death if severe poisoning, especially for children. Children who are exposed to lead are poisoned, their skin is pale, because lead inhibits the synthesis of Hemoglobin, leading to anemia. Lead can replace calcium in new cells of children, and impact on metabolism, leading to reduced ability to synthesize ATP (Adenozin Three Phosphate), damaging cell function.

Determining the amount of lead absorbed into a child's body from soil and dust sources is very difficult. According to the experiments of foreign authors, if the child absorbs a daily amount of dust about 25-100mg, but in that dust contains about 200 to 2,000mg / kg, the child can absorb the amount of lead is 5-200 mg / day.

However, not all lead penetrates into the body, but only a small amount of it, but accumulates in the liver, kidneys and in fat, the rest is passed through the feces, urine, sweat.

Symptoms of lead poisoning

Symptoms of lead poisoning in children are sometimes difficult to detect, especially in cases where lead levels are below the dangerous level but it causes chronic illness in children. In this case, children show nervous, tired, debilitating, and easily irritable temperament.

Children with lead poisoning have anemia. On the other hand, lead affects the digestive tract, so eating and drinking are reduced, loss of appetite, nausea, abdominal pain sometimes fierce, pale face. Many lead toxins easily lead to liver and kidney failure.

Lead poisoning is an environmental disease, difficult to detect, but most commonly in children and teenagers. Parents should note especially in urban areas with lots of waste, dust, house paint, sandy soil, and especially children's toys.

Prof. Dr. LE HUY BA ( National University of Ho Chi Minh City )