Lead poisoning

Lead poisoning is a chronic, or acute, toxicity caused by the build-up of lead, a Heavy metals heavy metal, in the body of a human (or other animal). For lead levels in the blood of adults and children, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention CDC has set recommended upper limits that should not be exceeded. Surprisingly small amounts of lead can cause serious health problems. Young children are especially at risk. Lead poisoning might cause a variety of symptoms, including abdominal pain, muscle cramps, constipation, headaches, neurobehavioral problems, or tingling in the hands and feet. Severe problems such as infertility, anemia, seizures, coma, or death might occur. Quotes In an effort to reduce lead paint exposure in old homes, the residential lead paint hazard disclosure rule (Title X) was enacted in 1996 in the USA, which requires house sellers to disclose known lead-based paint hazards to buyers. The policy is designed to induce individuals’ improved maintenance behaviors through environmental information provisions. Minimizing the impact on housing prices is also the key component of the policy; a decline in the price of old homes because of the policy may lead to higher occupancy rates of the targeted low-income groups into lead paint risk homes. To explore the issue, this study examined whether the lead paint disclosure rule lowered values of old houses using the American Housing Survey data from 1993 to 2005 with the repeat sales method. The findings show the policy did not lower prices of old homes, as it intended. Hyunhoe Bae, The impact of the residential lead paint disclosure rule on house prices: findings in the American Housing Survey Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 31 1 2016 19–30 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10901-015-9441-x 10.1007/s10901-015-9441-x Lead poisoning in children through the ingestion of lead-based paint chips is a serious health problem in American housing. Interest in how to eliminate the lead-based paint hazard from housing has lead to the passage of the "Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act" (PL 91-695) in January 1971. Through this Act United States Congress Congress has delegated to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) the leadership role in the research and development of technologies by which the lead-based paint poisoning hazard may be eliminated from the nation's housing. Robert E. Chapman, Preface iii–vii Economic Analysis of Experimental Lead Paint Abatement Methods, Phase 1 Technical Note 922 U.S. Department of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards 1976 https://books.google.com/books?id=UGDFqOgipQsC&pg=PR5 (94 pages; quote from p. v) Roman lead poisoning theory Lead poisoning existed and was already known in Antiquity but was forgotten, at least in the literature, until the end of the Middle Ages, where it was mentioned sporadically. In the 19th century this disease, which reached epidemic dimensions during the period of industrialization, was “rediscovered.” Several comprehensive clinical articles appeared in the literature. The clinical picture deepened during the beginning of the 20th century, and preventive efforts were started. However, the concept of poisoning remained strictly clinical. During the latter half of the 20th century a new concept emerged: subclinical and early forms became recognized as undesirable effects. This led to a substantial lowering of hygienic standards. Pediatric poisoning has also been a serious problem during the 20th century. After the 1920s, environmental pollution by lead caused by the introduction of etraethyllead tetraethyl lead in gasoline became an alarming public health problem. The use became restricted in the 1980s; its effects on blood lead levels are now evident. Today's research focuses on the effects of low exposure, often with the aim of defining noneffect levels for different types of effects. Sven Hernberg, Lead poisoning in a historical perspective American Journal of Industrial Medicine 38 3 8 August 2000 244–254 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/1097-0274(200009)38:3%3C244::AID-AJIM3%3E3.0.CO;2-F The United States has made extraordinary progress during the past 50 years in reducing children’s exposure to lead. In the early 1970s, lead was ubiquitous in the US environment. ... It was marketed aggressively by the lead industry ... and was used in paint, water Piping pipes, and plumbing fixtures. More than 100000 tons of Tetraethyllead tetraethyl lead were added each year to gasoline to improve automotive engine performance, and Lead poisoning#Exposure routes lead contamination of air, soil, and dust in urban centers and along highways was extensive. ... Scientists employed by the lead industry claimed that lead was an essential trace element, necessary for children’s nutrition. Philip J. Landrigan and David Bellinger, It’s time to end lead poisoning in the United States JAMA Pediatrics 175 12 2021 1216–1217 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2784262 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.3525 To determine whether the effects of low-level lead exposure persist, we reexamined 132 of 270 young adults who had initially been studied as primary schoolchildren in 1975 through 1978. In the earlier study, neurobehavioral functioning was found to be inversely related to dentin lead levels. As compared with those we restudied, the other 138 subjects had had somewhat higher lead levels on earlier analysis, as well as significantly lower IQ classification IQ scores and poorer teachers' ratings of classroom behavior.When the 132 subjects were reexamined in 1988, impairment in neurobehavioral function was still found to be related to the lead content of teeth shed at the ages of six and seven. The young people with dentin lead levels >20 ppm had a markedly higher risk of dropping out of high school (adjusted odds ratio, 7.4; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.4 to 40.7) and of having a reading disability (odds ratio, 5.8; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.7 to 19.7) as compared with those with dentin lead levels <10 ppm. Higher lead levels in childhood were also significantly associated with lower class standing in high school, increased absenteeism, lower vocabulary and grammatical-reasoning scores, poorer Hand–eye coordination hand—eye coordination, longer reaction times, and slower Tapping rate finger tapping. No significant associations were found with the results of 10 other tests of neurobehavioral functioning. Lead levels were inversely related to self-reports of minor delinquent activity. Herbert Needleman Herbert L. Needleman, Alan Schell, David Bellinger, Alan Leviton, and Elizabeth N. Allred, The long-term effects of exposure to low doses of lead in childhood: an 11-year follow-up report New England Journal of Medicine 322 2 January 11, 1990 83–88 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199001113220203 10.1056/NEJM199001113220203 External links Lead poisoning — Symptoms & causes Mayo Clinic https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lead-poisoning/symptoms-causes/syc-20354717 Category:Diseases and disorders Category:Health