Georgia faces its lead problem head on

In Kvatsikhe, four-year-old Barbare is strutting around her living room wearing her fluffy bunny slippers. She wants to put on some children’s lipstick and nail polish but her mother, Giuli, refused her request, cautious about her daughter using makeup or any other product that could contain lead. Barbare was one of the 1,578 children who participated in the 2018 MICS survey. Barbare’s reading of 13.2 μg/dL was well above the minimum threshold for concern of 5 μg/dL. Giuli said that Barbare started talking quite late and that her son was born with cerebral palsy. 

In the Adjara Autonomous Republic region, where around 85 per cent of children had lead levels at or above 5 μg/dL and half had levels at or above 10 μg/dL, nine-year-old Nutsa also participated in the study and had an even higher lead level - at 37.2 μg/dL. Dr. Irma Chikvaidze, a paediatrician at a clinic in Batumi, the capital of Adjara, says that little was known about the problem when the results first came out. “We had some theoretical knowledge, that was all,” she says, adding that the findings may shed light on the high number of unresolved cases of slow childhood development she has seen. As part of the national strategy, Dr. Chikvaidze and other medical personnel were provided with additional training to hone their understanding of the problem – including how to identify and respond to potential cases – and to encourage knowledge sharing among colleagues. “Children with developmental issues are now being referred for lead tests,” Dr. Chikvaidze says. “Everyone I know [has] wanted to get tested.”