Nearly 25% of US households may have soil lead levels exceeding the EPA's new safety threshold, affecting the health of about 29 million homes across the US.
Lead's ability to cross the blood-brain barrier is largely due to its ability to substitute for calcium ions. This review extensively reports that lead-induced damage to the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum can lead to a variety of neurological disorders, including brain damage, mental retardation, behavioral problems, nerve damage, and possibly Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and schizophrenia. In addition, lead exposure can have genotoxic effects, especially on the brain, bone marrow, liver, and lung cells. Lead induces apoptosis, inflammation, energy metabolism disorders, oxidative stress, autophagy, and glial stress.
Children can be exposed to lead at several locations. It can be found in many consumer products, such as water pipes, paint, food cans, spices, cosmetics, and traditional medicines. The hardest-to-see sources include air, water, food, toys, and even the mud that children play in. Lead is also used in industries such as mining and battery recycling. Unborn children can also be exposed to lead through their mothers’ exposure, with adverse impacts on development.
Pure Earth, the Clarios Foundation, and UNICEF launched the Protecting Every Child’s Potential (PECP) initiative in October 2020. PECP recognizes that protecting children from lead exposure.
PECP works in collaboration with local and national governments, businesses, the United Nations, academia, and civil society to reduce lead exposure. UNICEF also advocates for the reduction of childhood lead exposure as a member of the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint . The alliance promotes the phase-out of lead-containing paints by adopting lead paint laws.
Acid rain can occur as a result of the sulfuric acid mist that forms in these smelting plants and permeates the atmosphere. Water from the smelting process usually requires cleaning in a wastewater treatment plant by neutralization and precipitation of specific ions. Gypsum (CaSO4), metal hydroxides and sulfides are the main wastes from these systems. These wastewaters and liquid effluent treatment waters contain a variety of hazardous chemicals, such as chromium and lead. When smelting metals, a particular slag is generated that closely resembles volcanic rock and contains significant concentrations of a number of potentially toxic elements, including copper, zinc, lead, arsenic, cadmium and barium. Studies have shown that when slag releases these elements into the environment under natural weathering conditions, contamination of soils, surface water and groundwater can occur
Modern technologies are important to reduce or even prevent widespread pollution from smelters. Unlike early smelting, most of the sulfur dioxide generated today is initially captured before emission by the application of new equipment such as electrostatic precipitators. This machine is commonly used to capture dust particles and return them to the process. In addition, recycling lead batteries and aluminum cans and utilizing alternative raw materials decreases the demand for processing the ore, which also contributes to the reduction of water pollution .
Lead's ability to cross the blood-brain barrier is largely due to its ability to substitute for calcium ions. This review extensively reports that lead-induced damage to the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum can lead to a variety of neurological disorders, including brain damage, mental retardation, behavioral problems, nerve damage, and possibly Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and schizophrenia. In addition, lead exposure can have genotoxic effects, especially on the brain, bone marrow, liver, and lung cells. Lead induces apoptosis, inflammation, energy metabolism disorders, oxidative stress, autophagy, and glial stress.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278691521000971 (2022).----
Children can be exposed to lead at several locations. It can be found in many consumer products, such as water pipes, paint, food cans, spices, cosmetics, and traditional medicines. The hardest-to-see sources include air, water, food, toys, and even the mud that children play in. Lead is also used in industries such as mining and battery recycling. Unborn children can also be exposed to lead through their mothers’ exposure, with adverse impacts on development.
Pure Earth, the Clarios Foundation, and UNICEF launched the Protecting Every Child’s Potential (PECP) initiative in October 2020. PECP recognizes that protecting children from lead exposure.
PECP works in collaboration with local and national governments, businesses, the United Nations, academia, and civil society to reduce lead exposure. UNICEF also advocates for the reduction of childhood lead exposure as a member of the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint . The alliance promotes the phase-out of lead-containing paints by adopting lead paint laws.
https://www.unicef.org/stories/7-things-know-about-lead-exposure ,---
Is it possible to achieve cleaner smelters?
Acid rain can occur as a result of the sulfuric acid mist that forms in these smelting plants and permeates the atmosphere. Water from the smelting process usually requires cleaning in a wastewater treatment plant by neutralization and precipitation of specific ions. Gypsum (CaSO4), metal hydroxides and sulfides are the main wastes from these systems. These wastewaters and liquid effluent treatment waters contain a variety of hazardous chemicals, such as chromium and lead. When smelting metals, a particular slag is generated that closely resembles volcanic rock and contains significant concentrations of a number of potentially toxic elements, including copper, zinc, lead, arsenic, cadmium and barium. Studies have shown that when slag releases these elements into the environment under natural weathering conditions, contamination of soils, surface water and groundwater can occur
Modern technologies are important to reduce or even prevent widespread pollution from smelters. Unlike early smelting, most of the sulfur dioxide generated today is initially captured before emission by the application of new equipment such as electrostatic precipitators. This machine is commonly used to capture dust particles and return them to the process. In addition, recycling lead batteries and aluminum cans and utilizing alternative raw materials decreases the demand for processing the ore, which also contributes to the reduction of water pollution .
https://www.andersoneng.com/mining-smelters-water-pollution-and-environmental-remediation/#:~:text=Smelting%20processes%20release%20air%20emissions,plants%20that%20permeates%20the%20atmosphere.