DHAKA — About 36 million children in Bangladesh suffer the harmful effects of lead poisoning, including at least 20 million children under the age of 5 who have grown up with weakened cognitive abilities, researchers said. The World Health Organization says no level of lead exposure is acceptable, yet the average lead content in Bangladeshi children’s bodies is 68 micrograms. Lead also plays an indirect role in the deaths of the 138,054 people who die from heart disease in the country each year. The figures were presented Wednesday at a discussion titled “Preventing Lead Pollution in Bangladesh: Progress and Challenges,” organized by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).
Lead is a toxic heavy metal that silently damages the health of millions, particularly children and pregnant women, the discussion heard. There is no safe level of lead in the blood, though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers blood lead levels above 35 micrograms per liter in children to be concerning.
According to UNICEF, Bangladesh ranks fourth among countries affected by lead pollution worldwide, with about 36 million children living with high blood lead levels. Research has shown that between 2009 and 2012, 87% of children under age 2 in Dhaka’s slums had blood lead levels above 50 micrograms per liter, the primary cause of stunted physical growth.
In her welcome address, Sarah Salway, senior director of the Health Systems and Population Studies Division at icddr,b, said: “Lead pollution is a major public health problem in Bangladesh that often escapes our notice. Children living around polluting industries are its biggest victims.”
Lead severely impairs the development of children’s brains, said Stephen Luby, a professor of medicine at Stanford University and former director of icddr,b. “It reduces intelligence and learning ability, with lasting effects on the next generation,” he said. “Lead enters our bodies through the air we breathe, the food we eat, contaminated soil or dust we touch, and even through the placenta during pregnancy.”
Mahbubur Rahman, project coordinator at icddr,b, presented results from a decade of lead-related research. The main sources of lead pollution include lead and battery industries, lead-based paint and household items such as cosmetics and cookware, he said. Progress has been made in tackling adulteration of turmeric with lead chromate, used as a polish. After a Stanford-icddr,b team identified turmeric as a primary source of lead exposure for pregnant women, the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority enforced the law. As a result, 47% of turmeric samples tested positive for lead in 2019; by 2021 that figure had fallen close to zero.
Jasmin Sultana, an assistant researcher at icddr,b, presented preliminary results of a study conducted in Dhaka between 2022 and 2024 involving 500 children ages 2 to 4. Lead was found in every child’s blood (median: 67 micrograms per liter), and 98% had blood lead levels above the CDC’s concerning threshold of 35 micrograms per liter. Children living within 1 km of lead-related industrial sites had blood lead levels 43% higher than children living more than 5 km away. Other sources include indoor smoking, contaminated dust, lead-laced cosmetics and cookware.
icddr,b executive director Tahmid Ahmed said: “Lead poisoning is silently stealing our children’s future potential. It impairs full brain development and creates nutritional deficiencies. We must shut down these harmful sources of lead emissions now, so every child can grow up healthy and intelligent.”
Experts at the discussion called for swift action against lead-related industrial installations, such as factories that make or recycle lead-acid batteries, or facilities where lead is smelted or burned.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report