Lead-Free Future for Every Child Webinar Series: Carrying out a blood lead level survey

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. There is no safe level of lead exposure. Prevention is the only effective way to stop the damage caused by lead poisoning.

Nearly a third of the world’s children – up to 800 million – are affected by lead poisoning. It is a public health hazard in every region of the world, contributing to disease burden, disability and death. Most of the children with the highest blood lead levels live in Asia and Africa, but many are also affected in Central and South America and Eastern Europe, as well as in pockets within high-income countries.

The Partnership for Lead-Free Future hosts this webinar to share guidance on how to carry out a blood lead level survey. This is the second webinar in the Lead-Free Future for Every Child series. Rewatch the first webinar here.

This webinar will cover national blood lead level surveys, a powerful tool in understanding the extent and severity of lead toxicity in a country. Researchers from Mexico and Bhutan will discuss the approach taken by their respective countries, some of the challenges encountered, and the results of their work.

Speakers:

• Martha María (Mara) Téllez Rojo, Medical Sciences Investigator, Center for Nutrition and Health Research, National Institute of Public Health, Mexico
• Kinley Dorjee, Research Officer at Ministry of Health, Bhutan
• Bret Ericson, Environmental Health, UNICEF (moderator)