Assessment of lead impact on human and India's response

Lead (Pb) exposures in India are significant. A 2020 report from UNICEF and Pure Earth found that approximately 800 million children’s globally are Pb poisoned- over 5 µg/dl in blood. This is about one half of all children in India. At this level, they suffer from reduced intelligence (3 to 5 IQ points), more delinquent and violent behaviour and lower educational attainment. According to that report, the effects are permanent, lasting throughout adulthood, thus one half of the Indian population is significantly impaired from Pb exposures. This amount of Pb poisoning causes significant number of deaths from cardiovascular disease (about 2.3 lakh deaths annually in India). The study examined data from Indian studies to review the findings. A total of 89 data sets from 36 studies carried out between 1970 and 2014 were derived and used in the model. A total of sample size for the model study was 234,678. The study found that in 23 states average Blood Pb levels (BLL) is well above 5 µg/dl. Average for the country are high-averaging 4.9 µg/dl for children less than 2 years old. These results corroborate with the findings of UNICEF/ Pure Earth report and hence it is likely to be reliable.