Introduction:
Lead poisoning is a serious health condition caused by exposure to high levels of lead, a toxic metal that can build up in the body over time, particularly affecting children. Alarmingly, 50% of children with elevated blood lead levels globally are found in India. Even small amounts of lead exposure can cause significant health problems such as to impaired neurological and cognitive development in children, and these effects are often irreversible. The symptoms of lead poisoning can be hard to detect initially, as they often do not appear until dangerous amounts have accumulated in the body. According to the UNICEF report, 275 million children in India record blood lead levels above the WHO intervention threshold of 5 μg/dL,1 with 64.3 million children exceeding 10 μg/dL.
