There is a monster in town; one that lurks in the background and, before we know it, strikes a blow.
Yes, I am talking about lead, which leads to poisoning. I am, therefore, talking about lead poisoning.
Today, my focus is on its effects on children, who are the future.
Research findings indicate that lead poisoning from paint and other sources is estimated to affect 3.4 million children in Malawi, costing the country $878 million in lost earnings every year.
Maybe someone is lost—as to what I am talking about. I mean, as to what lead is. Well, lead is a blue or silver grey metal which has been mined for thousands of years. The lead we are talking about is found naturally— that is, easily—in the environment, usually in coal and ore.
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Reports indicate that approximately 300 hundred million tonnes of lead have been released into the environment through mining and ore processing over the last five centuries. This is linked to the fact that lead has a range of properties which make it crucial in modern society.
The World Health Organisation says, for instance, that lead is soft, malleable. In addition, it says, lead is a relatively poor conductor of electricity and, to add an icing on the cake, highly resistant to corrosion.
Not just that. Lead is able to absorb sounds and other vibrations, as well as radiation. Lead also has a low melting point and is resistant to fire.
What has prompted me to say this? President Lazarus Chakwera’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the United States. The President is there to advance Malawi’s cause.
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Now, among his many engagements this week, he had time to address stakeholders on the issue of lead. He, among other things, bemoaned the extent of lead poisoning among children in Malawi.
Addressing heads of State and government as well as other high-level international dignitaries during the launch of a Partnership for a Lead-Free Future, the First Citizen said a year after he took office, his administration discovered high levels of lead in paint that was being sold on the Malawian market, resulting in the exposure of over three million Malawian children to lead poisoning.
May be a quick intervention on this. Chakwera emerged victorious in the June 23 2020 court-ordered presidential election.
Back to New York. Chakwera claimed that while his administration had been pouring millions of United States dollars— actually, we are talking about Kwacha here—in the education sector, the outcomes of that education were constantly being compromised by the impairment of children’s cognitive development caused by lead poisoning.
He said so serious was the situation that the cost of treating lead-related illnesses was close to $1 billion annually. This is equivalent to 5 percent of Malawi’s total national output or wealth as measured by gross domestic product.
Maybe I may do justice to the President if I let him speak for himself. “So, within my first year in office, we committed the resources of the Malawi Bureau of Standards to collaborate with the Lead Exposure Elimination Project in providing stronger enforcement of lead paint regulations, including better testing facilities to detect lead in products,” he said.
Such a measure alone, Chakwera said, resulted in the reduction of the market share of brands with lead paint by 50 percent within two years.
Fine and well but the truth remains that over half of the firms that deal in lead substances are still releasing it. They are still exposing our children to the dangers associated with lead.
What dangers am I talking about? Here we go: Symptoms include drowsiness, exhaustion, convulsions, permanent muscular paralysis, coma and eventually death can occur at very high blood lead concentrations of 100 μg/dl and above.
This is WHO and not me. Anyway, before I delve into the μg/dl issues and confuse you even further, I may do justice to myself by stopping here with the message: Let us protect our children from lead. Let those who deal in it reduce the concentration levels— please!
