Lead in the Body

Leaducation

As the old saying goes, "kids will be kids." However true this may be, it is also extremely dangerous. Children are notorious for eating foreign objects and putting odd substances in their mouths. While they are only trying to experiment and discover how the world around them works, they could potentially be harming their bodies and future abilities. Lead poisoning is a common local and national issue that often forms when a person is a child, and harshly affects the person's memory and learning capabilities.

The Detroit area consistently leads the state of Michigan in lead poisoning. An article in the Detroit Free Press from May, 2010 went into detail on the horrifying disease and its many problems.

To understand how drastic lead poisoning is and how it affects a person's performance, one must know how lead alters the body. "Lead is a neurotoxin that can reduce a child's intelligence and cause a lifetime of behavioral and health problems" (Lam). Children are much more likely to receive lead poisoning because of the numerous materials that enter their mouths on a daily basis. "Exposure to lead in young children damages developing brains - and its effects are permanent, so once a child has high levels, harm is done" (Lam). The most common cause of lead poisoning is through lead-based paint and household dust. Once lead enters the body, it infects and damages various body parts. Lead attacks cells and destroys them; it enters kidneys, which act like sponges, and bones, both holding high concentrations of lead; and it inhabits the brain, where it causes the most damage, decreasing intelligence and causing learning disabilities (Lam).

Through a project one on an Excel spreadsheet, the result of lead entering the bones, blood, and tissue of the human body was examined in detail. Lead seems to eventually level off in the blood and tissue, but continuously increases in the bones unless the subject is taken to a lead-free environment. "Lead poisoning is not contagious" (Virtual Pediatric Hospital), yet the disease does seem to occur within families because of the household root. "Symptoms [or lead poisoning] may include getting easily excited, having a short attention span, stomachache, tiredness, learning and behavior problems, kidney damage, diarrhea, and seizures" (Virtual Pediatric Hospital).

The most common effect of lead poisoning is learning deficiency. "'There is a clear connection between lead poisoning and academic problems, which is relevant to understanding achievement gaps and why schools are failing'" (Lam: Carole Ann Beaman). Approximately 39,000 Detroit Public School students were tested for lead poisoning. According to the results, 58% of these students had a history with lead poisoning. In addition to this test, test scores and lead levels were compared.