Context

• Lead toxicity in India continues to remain a public health concern.

Lead toxicity

• Lead is a highly toxic metal and a very strong poison.
• Lead poisoning is a serious and sometimes fatal condition which occurs when lead builds up in the body.
• It is characterized especially by fatigue, abdominal pain, nausea, loss of appetite, anemia, a dark line along the gums, and muscle paralysis 
• Sources of lead poisoning include battery recycling, lead mining, smelting, welding, soldering ,automobile repatriating, household paints, etc.

Global Scenario

• Around 1 in 3 children – up to approximately 800 million globally,  have blood lead levels (BLL) at or above 5 micrograms per decilitre (µg/dL)
• Children around the world are being poisoned by lead on a massive and unrecognized scale.
• The impact of lead on adults is so large that over 900,000 premature deaths per year are attributed to lead exposure.
• Many countries lack sufficient formal recycling infrastructure and capacity to handle the quantity of used lead-acid batteries flooding their markets. 

Indian Context

• India is a home to a large population of children (275,561,163 of the 800 million) poisoned by lead.
• Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh had the highest average blood lead levels (BLL) among Indian states.
• Some 23 states have an average BLL that goes beyond five microgram per decilitre (μg / dl)
•  Lead poisoning has caused 230,000 premature deaths in India.

Impact of lead toxicity

• Lead exposure can have serious consequences for the health of children. At high levels of exposure lead attacks the brain and central nervous system, causing coma, convulsions and even death. 
• Lead can affect children’s brain development, resulting in reduced intelligence quotient (IQ), behavioral changes ,reduced attention span, etc.
• Lead exposure also causes anemia, hypertension, renal impairment, and toxicity to the reproductive organs.

Lead acid batteries

• • Management of lead-acid batteries came under the Batteries (Management and Handling) Rules, 2001. 
  • But enforcement capacity to ensure safe and environmentally sound recycling has been inadequate.
  • As a result, almost half of the used lead-acid batteries in India are still recycled in informal, uncontrolled and unregulated settings.
  • However, the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022 aim at reducing share of battery recycling in the informal sector and stress on extended producer responsibility.

• Extended producer responsibility is a practice and a policy approach in which producers take responsibility for management of the disposal of products they produce once those products are designated as no longer useful by consumers.

Prevailing challenges

• India lacks systems to screen populations for possible lead exposure
• In several circumstances, determining the source of (lead) poisoning is challenging since patients may not disclose their history of (lead) exposure, resulting in a late diagnosis.
• Further sources of lead poisoning change from location to location, and there are usually multiple exposure sources in any given place.
• Factories Act, 1948, also has provisions to protect the health and safety of workers, it is difficult to cover all industries. 

Way Forward

• Regular screening and testing of lead sources will inform about region-wise prevalence and help tailor interventions, such as changes in industry practices, training of government officials to assess lead contamination, and changes in public education and consumer behavior.