What are the hazards of excessive lead to children

Although lead is an essential metal element in the human body, if the human body ingests too much lead, it will cause metal poisoning. Many children use pencils when they first start school. The main component of pencils is lead. This has led to many cases of lead poisoning caused by children biting pencils when they go to school. So what impact will excessive lead intake have on children?

The harm of lead to children

1. Impact on the nervous system: The lead concentration in the hair of children with learning difficulties is significantly higher than that of children with good academic performance. Animal experiments have shown that excessive lead absorption can cause hyperactivity in animals. Daily exposure to lead in children can cause an average IQ drop of 2 to 5 points. The average verbal IQ of children with elevated blood lead levels was 4.5 points lower than that of normal children.

2. Impact on the blood system: Children with excessive lead may have their bone marrow hematopoietic function suppressed, resulting in the appearance of stippled red blood cells and causing anemia, manifested as fatigue and pale complexion.

3. Impact on the digestive system: Early symptoms include poor appetite, abdominal distension, nausea, vomiting, constipation and migratory abdominal pain.

4 In addition, it can cause changes in the kidneys such as chronic nephritis; damage the myocardium and cause electrocardiogram changes; and affect the immune system, causing a significant decrease in antibody production.

What lead-containing items do children come into contact with in daily life?

1. Stationery

When we hear the word "lead type", we naturally think of pencils. However, the pencil lead does not actually contain lead, but the colored paint on the outside of the pencil does contain lead. Children usually put pencils in their mouths and can easily swallow a lot of lead.

In addition to pencils, oil pastels or crayons used by children for drawing also contain lead. Newly bought oil pastels and crayons are wrapped in a layer of paper to prevent children from direct contact with the lead, so parents should pay attention to prevent children from tearing off the outer wrapping paper.

2. Furniture

Furniture in your home also contains a lot of lead because lead is an additive in many paints. In particular, parents like to buy brightly colored furniture for their children, and even paint their children's rooms in colors, which invisibly exposes their children to more lead.

3. Toys

Many toys also use paint on their eyes, mouths, hands and feet. If children like to sleep with their toys in their arms, they will inadvertently inhale more lead.

4. Food

Lead is also found in many foods. For example, some canned foods have increased lead content due to the use of lead in welding seams; foods with high lead content mainly include popcorn made in containers with high lead content; preserved eggs that have lead oxide added to speed up their ripening; and puffed foods with added leavening agents (which contain large amounts of lead and aluminum).