Global health burden and cost of lead exposure in children and adults: a health impact and economic modelling analysis

Lead exposure is a worldwide health risk despite substantial declines in blood lead levels following the leaded gasoline phase-out. For the first time, to our knowledge, we aimed to estimate the global burden and cost of intelligence quotient (IQ) loss and cardiovascular disease mortality from lead exposure. Our findings suggest that global lead exposure has health and economic costs at par with PM2·5 air pollution. However, much work remains to improve the quality of blood lead level measurement data, especially in LMICs.