Lead Toxicity in Children: An Unremitting Public Health Problem

Background: Lead is a pervasive environmental contaminant. Lead accumulates in the body, impairing a molecular level various cellular processes. Lead exposure during childhood causes adverse and permanent neurodevelopmental consequences, sometimes even with “low” blood lead levels. Symptoms are frequently silent, making lead exposure an often unrecognized and underestimated threat for pervasive neurocognitive disorders. Methods: We identified articles focusing on childhood exposure to lead and neurodevelopment via a search of the electronic database PubMed (National Library of Medicine), including journal articles published from 2007 to 2019. These articles were used to evaluate the effect of environmental lead exposure and analyze whether control efforts over the past decades have altered the prevalence of exposed children. Conclusions: Children are still being exposed to lead despite evidence of the adverse impact of exposure, even for children with blood lead levels below the currently recognized threshold for intervention. Legislative and educational efforts have brought significant reductions in lead exposure but are not being followed universally. Primary prevention and identification of high-risk populations are the best cost-benefit interventions to fight this public health problem.