Tag Archive for: symptoms

Medicine doctor woman hand working with computer virtual dashboard as medical network concept Lead testing

Lead Exposure’s Silent Threat to IQ and Lives

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.

Lead exposure, once thought to be on the decline, continues to pose a significant global health risk. Despite strides in reducing lead levels in the wake of the phasing out of leaded gasoline, new research reveals a sobering truth. A recent study, conducted for the first time on a global scale, estimates the burden and economic cost of lead exposure, specifically focusing on intelligence quotient (IQ) loss in children and cardiovascular disease mortality in adults. The findings are alarming.

Lead exposure remains a substantial public health concern worldwide. Even with progress in reducing blood lead levels, there are lingering threats to human health. This comprehensive study aims to quantify the worldwide impact of lead exposure on intelligence and cardiovascular health, shedding light on the hidden consequences of this silent toxin.

Blood lead level estimates

This groundbreaking modeling study utilized blood lead level estimates from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019. Researchers assessed IQ loss in children under 5 years old and calculated the associated economic costs. Cardiovascular disease mortality in adults over 25 years old due to lead exposure was also determined. All estimates were categorized by World Bank income classification and region, focusing on low and middle-income countries in 2019.

Findings: The results are startling. In 2019, it is estimated that children under 5 years old worldwide lost a staggering 765 million IQ points due to lead exposure. Furthermore, lead exposure led to the premature deaths of 5,545,000 adults from cardiovascular disease. Of these losses, 90.2% occurred in low and middle-income countries. The economic toll is equally concerning, with the global cost of lead exposure totaling $6.0 trillion in 2019, equivalent to 6.9% of the world’s GDP.

These findings underscore the immense health and economic repercussions of global lead exposure, rivaling those of PM2.5 air pollution. While progress has been made, there is an urgent need to improve the quality of blood lead level data, particularly in low and middle-income countries. The study serves as a stark reminder that lead exposure continues to exact a significant toll on global health and economies.

Funding: The research was supported by the Korea Green Growth Trust Fund and the World Bank’s Pollution Management and Environmental Health Program.

 

Read the full article on thelancet.com

Household items - lead

Revolutionary Lead spray test using solar cell tech

AMOLF researchers have used the special properties of perovskite semiconductors to develop a simple spray test to demonstrate the presence of lead. Perovskite is a material suitable for use in LEDs and solar cells, for example.

A lead-containing surface shines bright green when it is sprayed with the test. This test is 1,000 times more sensitive than existing tests and the researchers found no false positive or false negative results. The study was published on November 27 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

“We have hijacked the technology of perovskite semiconductors and used it in a widely deployable lead test. Nobody in this discipline had ever thought of that,” says Lukas Helmbrecht, researcher at the group Self-Organizing Matter led by Wim Noorduin at AMOLF. “We are very pleased with these results,” says Noorduin. “It is a really cool project and it is quite rare for fundamental research to literally impact the entire world with an application.”

Read the full article on physc.org

Lead testing in the field

A lead test based on solar cell technology

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AMOLF researchers have used the special properties of perovskite semiconductors to develop a simple spray test to demonstrate the presence of lead. Perovskite is a material suitable for use in LEDs and solar cells, for example.

Revolutionary Lead Detection with Perovskite Semiconductors

A lead-containing surface shines bright green when it is sprayed with the test. This test is 1000 times more sensitive than existing tests and the researchers found no false positive or false negative results. The study was published on November 27th in the scientific journal Environmental Science and Technology.

“It is a really cool project and it is quite rare for fundamental research to literally impact the entire world with an application.”

“We have hijacked the technology of perovskite semiconductors and used it in a widely deployable lead test. Nobody in this discipline had ever thought of that,” says Lukas Helmbrecht, researcher at the group Self-Organizing Matter led by Wim Noorduin at AMOLF. “We are very pleased with these results,” says Noorduin.

Read the full article on amolf.nl

Paint - lead

Direct Environmental Lead Detection

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Although the global ban on leaded gasoline has markedly reduced lead poisoning, many other environmental sources of lead exposure, such as paint, pipes, mines, and recycling sites remain.

Existing methods to identify these sources are either costly or unreliable. We report here a new, sensitive, and inexpensive lead detection method that relies on the formation of a perovskite semiconductor. The method only requires spraying the material of interest with methylammonium bromide and observing whether photoluminesence occurs under UV light to indicate the presence of lead. The method detects as little as 1.0 ng/mm2 of lead by the naked eye and 50 pg/mm2 using a digital photo camera. We exposed more than 50 different materials to our reagent and found no false negatives or false positives. The method readily detects lead in soil, paint, glazing, cables, glass, plastics, and dust and could be widely used for testing the environment and preventing lead poisoning.

Read the full article on pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A Reagent spray bottle spraying from the rightLumetallix B.V.

Green Fluorescent Light with Spray-on Detector

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Lead contamination and exposure can cause “ profound and permanent ” impacts, including brain damage in children, and increased risk of kidney damage, cardiovascular disease, and miscarriage, according to the World Health Organization.

Lead Detection Breakthrough: Green Fluorescent Light with Spray-on Detector

While known contamination is relatively easy to mitigate, the detection itself can be a tricky proposition. Standard methods can only detect lead if it’s isolated and concentrated first.

Now, researchers at Amolf, a research institute dedicated to studying the physics of matter, have developed a spray-on reagent that signals the presence of even tiny amounts of lead by lighting up fluorescent green under a UV light within seconds. Comprised of methyl ammonium bromide in isopropanol, it reacts with lead to form a photoluminescent lead bromide perovskite (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2023, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c06058) .

 

Read the full article on cen.acs.org

Wetenschap Vandaag BNR logo groot

BNR Nieuwsradio – Slim apparaatje laat meteen zien of ergens lood in zit

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Over de aflevering
Deze week werden de winnaars van de Amsterdam Science Innovation Award bekend gemaakt. Eén van de kanshebbers is Lukas Helmbrecht, van de UvA en AMOLF. Hij heeft iets ontwikkeld waarmee loodvervuiling heel makkelijk en goedkoop gedetecteerd kan worden.

We bespreken hoe groot het probleem met loodvervuiling is en welke oplossing hij onder de naam Lumetallix heeft ontwikkeld.

Lees hier meer over de Amsterdam Science Innovation Award


Luister de volledige aflevering op bnr.nl of luister hier:

Female worker surface corrosion plate preparation by sand blasting of tank internal oil

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health

 

EPA/L. Koula
A man melts Lead metallic wastes use in the production of cooking pots, at a recycling warehouse in Koumassi, Abidjan, Ivory Coast

 

EPA/L. Koula
A man melts Lead metallic wastes use in the production of cooking pots, at a recycling warehouse in Koumassi, Abidjan, Ivory Coast