The research comes from experts at Carnegie Mellon University, Boston College and Hunan University.
Funded by Heinze College at Carnegie University, new research has discovered that the concentration of lead in the air is associated with infant mortality.
‘Although many studies have examined the adverse effects of lead on children’s cognitive and behavioural outcomes, few have analysed the effect of exposure to lead on infants’ health, so we know little about the extent of harm to infants’ health from airborne lead in settings with modern medical care and at modern exposure levels,’ Karen Clay, professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College, and leader and the study said.
To conduct the research, which can be found in full here, experts used data from the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), EPA monitors, and the confidential National Vital Statistics database to provide estimates of the effects of airborne lead on infant mortality in the USA.
It was revealed that heightened levels of lead in the air causes higher infant mortality in the first month following birth and in the first year, suggesting that both in utero and environmental exposures are involved.
What’s more, researchers also outlined a correlation between higher lead concentration and an increase in deaths from sudden unexplained infant death (SUID), respiratory and nervous system causes, and low birth weight.
The published research has come as quite a shock as it was previously believed that a lot of work has been done to eradicate lead in our environment – such as removing it from petrol. The charity UNICEF recently revealed that one in every three children on the planet had levels of lead in their blood above 5 µg/dL (micrograms per decilitre), a benchmark for high lead exposure.
Xiao Wang, assistant professor of economics and trade at Hunan University, who coauthored the study said: ‘In the United States, industrial firms and the aviation industry still emit hundreds of thousands of pounds of lead into the air. Our new estimates can inform investments in reducing air lead emissions and soil cleanups.’
Photo by Marcin Jozwiak via UnSplash
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