At the crack of dawn today, some Malawian child in some corner of the country probably suffered from the consequences of lead—without knowing it.
This is because, according to leadelimination-org, the problem of lead poisoning is so rampant in Malawi and other African countries that it is worrying.
“Lead poisoning from paint and from other sources is estimated to affect 3.4 million children in Malawi, costing the country $878 million in lost earnings every year,” it points out
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), lead is a blue or silver grey metal which has been mined for thousands of years.
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The global body says lead is found naturally in the environment, usually in coal and ore as well as other metals such as zinc, silver and copper.
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According to the organisation, there are estimates that 300 hundred million tonnes of lead have been released into the environment through mining and ore processing over the last five centuries.
It attributes this to the fact that lead has a range of properties which have made it crucial in modern society.
WHO says, for instance, that it [lead] is soft, malleable, a relatively poor conductor of electricity, highly resistant to corrosion, and is able to absorb sounds and other vibrations, as well as radiation.
It further points out that lead has a low melting point and is resistant to fire.
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Fortunately, policymakers in Malawi seem to appreciate the extent of the problem.
Take, for instance, President Lazarus Chakwera, who is attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the United States.
This week, he reminded stakeholders about the extent of the problem in Malawi.
Among other things, he lamented 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 in New York, United States of America (USA), Chakwera 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.
Chakwera claimed that while his administration had been pouring millions of United States dollars 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.
“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 (Leep) 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.
The Government of Malawi also secured the commitment of two-thirds of all manufacturers to go lead-free.
“Malawi is committed to joining the Partnership for a Lead Free Future in order to have access to the necessary international support to achieve such important benchmarks as identifying all key sources of lead exposure in Malawi,” Chakwera said.
Leep itself bears witness of this.
According to the organisation, since 2020, there have been concerted efforts to eliminate risks that lead exposure poses.
“In 2020, Leep set out to eliminate the market availability of lead paint in Malawi. We found evidence of high levels of lead in market-available paint and presented the results to the Malawi Bureau of Standards, who then committed to enforcing lead paint regulation,” it says.
It further expresses hope on the potential outcomes of the initiative.
“We anticipate that our programme will significantly reduce the number of houses painted with leaded paint, which will in turn reduce the number of children in Malawi exposed to lead per year. Ultimately, this lowers the total number of daily-equivalents caused. But even in the counterfactual case, we would expect that, some number of years in the future, Malawi would have begun to regulate lead paint anyway and reap similar benefits.
“Leep’s effect is, therefore, not to generate lead paint regulation in Malawi when it otherwise never would have existed, but rather to expedite it by some number of years. With a fair amount of uncertainty, we estimate this to be eight years,” it says.
According to a report titled ‘Lead Exposure in African Children: Contemporary Sources and Concerns’, lead is a “very versatile substance, and it is used in literally hundreds of products, including protective equipment (for example X-ray shields and fire protection gear), petrol (as an anti-knocking agent—though this use is close to being phased out globally), paint (to increase durability of the pigment and speed up drying), cabling, ammunition, jewelry, hair dye, computer and electrical equipment, wheel balancing weights and fishing sinkers, to mention but a few”.
It says, in 2003, recycled lead accounted for 45 percent of global lead supply, with most of the recycled lead coming from used lead acid batteries, with the remainder coming from other sources such as lead pipes, sheets, cable sheathing and wastes from fabricating/processing operations.
“The extensive use of lead has resulted in widespread human exposure to this toxic metal. There are no natural mechanisms for the breakdown of lead, and once released into the environment, it persists for very long periods. Due to atmospheric transmission, lead can affect the most remote regions of the world,” the report reads.
It could be for this reason that African ministers of Health decided to do something about the situation.
In 2010, African ministers of Health and Environment, in the Luanda Commitment which followed the Libreville Declaration of 2008, highlighted their “concerns over the adverse effects on human health and the environment from the use, disposal of and exposure to hazardous chemicals and wastes which pose a major challenge for many African governments”.
They further observed that lead was one hazardous substance to which far too many Africans were exposed, from far too many sources, on a daily basis.
“This report shows that exposure to lead results in a range of health, social and education effects that have a direct and huge effect on African economic productivity and prospects.
A source of both concern and optimism is the knowledge that lead poisoning is preventable. With the available strategies and programmes, and with sufficient political will, we have the power and the means to eliminate lead exposure in Africa, thereby giving African children a greater chance of reaching their full potential in life, and lowering health and educational costs.
“Action to prevent lead poisoning will also help boost African economies by billions of dollars. The Luanda Commitment paves the way for the development of a concerted programme of action for the Prevention of Lead Poisoning in African countries. Urgent, comprehensive and sustained action in this regard will reap huge, and much needed, health, social and economic benefits for African countries, and should therefore be implemented without delay,” Dr Matshidiso Moeti, Regional Director World Health Organisation (African Region), is quoted as saying.
Lead exposure and poisoning are associated with a wide range of signs and symptoms; however, most are varied and non-specific, making the diagnosis of lead exposure on clinical grounds difficult, the report indicates.
“Symptoms such as drowsiness, exhaustion, convulsions, permanent muscular paralysis, coma and eventually death can occur at very high blood lead concentrations of 100 μg/dl and above. Acute, high concentrations of lead in blood, for example from 70 μg/dl to 100 μg/dl, can produce severe kidney abnormalities.
“Initially this may be reversible but if lead exposure continues, then irreversible chronic effects may result. In children, if treatment occurs within two months of exposure, there is usually good recovery. Gastro-intestinal abnormalities (anorexia, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps) are likely to occur. At blood levels of ≥40 μg/dl, lead affects the activity of enzymes needed for the proper functioning of red blood cells, leading to anaemia,” the report indicates.
All these point to the fact that lead presents threats to lives, both in Malawi and other countries.
That imminent threat must surely serve as a call to action.
