This includes individual efforts such as removing lead-containing items from the home, workplace efforts such as improved ventilation and monitoring, state laws that ban the use of and national policies such as laws that ban lead in products such as paint, gasoline, ammunition, wheel weights, and fishing weights reduce allowable levels in water or soil, and provide for cleanup of contaminated soil. Workers education could be helpful as well. The major treatments are removal of the source of lead and the use of medications that bind lead so it can be eliminated from the body, known as chelation therapy. Chelation therapy in children is recommended when blood levels are greater than 40–45 µg/dl. Medications used include dimercaprol, edetate calcium disodium, and succimer.In 2016, lead is believed to have resulted in 540,000 deaths worldwide. It occurs most commonly in the developing world. There also are numerous cases in the developed world, with there being thousands of American communities with higher lead burdens than seen during the peak of the Flint water crisis. Those who are poor are at greater risk. Lead is believed to result in 0.6% of the worlds disease burden. According to a study, half of the US population has been exposed to substantially detrimental lead levels in early childhood – mainly from car exhaust whose lead pollution peaked in the 1970s and caused widespread loss in cognitive ability.People have been mining and using lead for thousands of years.
The toxic effect of lead causes nephropathy and may cause Fanconi syndrome, in which the proximal tubular function of the kidney is impaired. Long-term exposure at levels lower than those that cause lead nephropathy have also been reported as nephrotoxic in patients from developed countries that had chronic kidney disease or were at risk because of hypertension or diabetes mellitus. Lead poisoning inhibits excretion of the waste product urate and causes a predisposition for gout, in which urate builds up. This condition is known as saturnine gout. Cardiovascular system
Evidence suggests lead exposure is associated with high blood pressure, and studies have also found connections between lead exposure and coronary heart disease, heart rate variability, and death from stroke, but this evidence is more limited. People who have been exposed to higher concentrations of lead may be at a higher risk for cardiac autonomic dysfunction on days when ozone and fine particles are higher. Reproductive system
Lead affects both the male and female reproductive systems. In men, when blood lead levels exceed 40 μg/dL, sperm count is reduced and changes occur in volume of sperm, their motility, and their morphology. A pregnant womans elevated blood lead level can lead to miscarriage, prematurity, low birth weight, and problems with development during childhood. Lead is able to pass through the placenta and into breast milk, and blood lead levels in mothers and infants are usually similar.