Lead Pollution

Abstract

This article is a readjustment of the report titled "Smoke and factories drown us," the newspaper published in Lima last EYE 2001. Comes to denouncing the existing lead contamination in a South American country town. Of a total of 82 blood samples of schoolchildren 6 to 13 years of age, 25 had blood lead levels between 10.1 and 16.4 mg / dl (micrograms per deciliter of blood). The symptoms of children with blood lead levels greater than 10 mg / dl were headache, insomnia, fatigue, anorexia, chronic cough, abdominal cramps and vomiting. The problem is compounded because the mineral particles are swept bare by wind in dense dust clouds that are introduced into the homes and deposited in the streets, roofs, strings of clothes, hair and skin of people and, of course, the body through breathing. Despite the evidence, studies and the growing number of clinical cases, especially in children, this situation has not yet been addressed properly by both the public and private sector.