Lead is another surface pollutant. Man inhales lead as an air pollutant and ingests traces of lead daily through a normal diet. Because lead wastes have increased during the past century, particularly from industry and automobile use, exposure and intake into the body have increased. Consequently, the rate of absorption by soft tissue exceeds the rate of excretion or storage by bone. An urgent problem is controlling the lead exposure that occurs from drinking or eating from improperly lead-glazed earthenware, using leaded gasoline, consuming lead-contaminated “moonshine”, or working in or living near industries where lead exposure is not controlled.
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Another urgent problem arises when young children, mainly in urban slums, form the habit of eating nonfood substances, including peeling paint, plaster, or putty containing lead. This behavior is called pica. The precise cause of pica is not completely understood, but it may be related to nutritional, cultural, and emotional factors. Acute or chronic lead poisoning, an insidious disease, results from this eating pattern and is a major source of brain damage, mental deficiency, and behavior problems. The pathological changes that occur affect the nervous, renal, and hematopoietic systems. Kidney damage is usually reversible, but chronic lead poisoning in childhood may lead to gout or kidney disease later in life. Damage to the hematopoietic system is evident by the reduction in the number and quality of red blood cells produced, thus leading to severe anemia. The most serious effects are on the nervous system. The mortality rate from lead encephalopathy (disease of the brain) is 5 percent. Of the children who survive acute lead poisoning, 40 percent have convulsive disorders and another 20 percent have significant neurological deficits.
References :
Chilsolm, Julian, “Lead Poisoning”, Scientific American, 224: No.2, 1971.
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Noise on Wheels. Washington, D.C.: Office of Public Affairs, February, 1977.
Waldron, Harry, and D. Stofen, Sub-Clinical Lead Poisoning. New York: Academic Press, 1974.
Levine, R., et al., “Occupational Lead Poisoning, Animal Deaths and Environmental Contamination at a Scrap Smelter”, American Journal of Public Health, 66: No.6, 1976.
Reed, Jane, “Lead Poisoning : Silent Epidemic and Social Crime”, American Journal of Nursing, 72 : No.4, 1972.
Hardy, Harriet, Robert Goyer, and Vincent Guince, eds., Epidemiology and Detection of Lead Toxicity. New York: MSS Information Corporation, 1976.
Murray, RB and Zentner JP., Nursing Concepts for Health Promotion, Second Edtion, Prentice-Hall, Inc, Englewood Cliffs, N.J, 1979.
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