UNICEF

Lead is a highly poisonous heavy metal. Exposure to even small amounts of lead over time can have lifelong effects on children, inflicting irreversible damage to their developing bodies and brains. Significant levels of lead poisoning in many low- and middle-income countries result from the irregular use of lead in consumer products such as spices, paints and dyes, cookware and ceramics, cosmetics, toys and others... Lead is vastly used for lead-acid batteries in vehicles and other industrial applications. The unsafe recycling of batteries and e-waste contaminates the air, water and soil in surrounding communities. There is no cure for lead poisoning - the damage it causes cannot be reversed... The World Bank's 2023 assessment reveals that the global cost of lead exposure was US$6.0 trillion in 2019, ranking lead exposure as an environmental risk factor on par with PM2.5 ambient and household air pollution combined, and ahead of unsafe household drinking water, sanitation and..