Lead poisoning in children

The case history of lead poisoning presented by Pascal Lavoie and Benoit Bailey1 illustrates the surreal state of political responses to this issue in Canada today.

The authors assert that lead poisoning is now rare in Canada,1 but there are almost no current data on this problem. The last national pediatric blood lead survey of Canadian children took place in 1978,2 and the few regional surveys conducted in Canada since then have revealed elevated blood lead levels in 2% to 11% of children tested.3^,4Lack of reporting of a problem does not prove its absence.

While paint is the primary source of lead exposure in Canada,5 there are other significant sources, including household drinking water (via lead plumbing fixtures), contaminated soil, maternal stores, consumer products and game contaminated with lead shot.

Today, in 2004, there is still no Canadian standard for “safe” interior lead dust levels in housing. At the 1997 G-8 Summit in Denver, Canada was an official signatory to the Declaration on Children's Environmental Health, which called for further reductions in maternal and child exposure to lead. Now, 7 years later, Health Canada's Consumer Product Safety group is finally developing a lead risk reduction strategy to address the hazards of lead in consumer products.6 However, scant attention has been paid to lead exposure through housing.

In 1994 the Health Canada report on blood lead intervention levels and strategies7 recommended that “investigations be carried out to assess the existence and extent of undue exposure to lead in paint in dwellings in Canadian cities.” Ten years later this recommendation has still not been followed.

We need to do more to protect future generations of Canadians than simply identify lead-poisoned children on a case-by-case basis. We need a national system for collecting, monitoring and reporting data on pediatric lead poisoning, and then we must act to eliminate the problem.

Warren Bell President Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment Toronto, Ont. Kelly O'Grady President Lead Environmental Awareness and Detection Pembroke, Ont.