Your Child Has Been Poisoned The most important thing for you to understand is that this is serious, potentially fatal, and it can have profound impact on your child's future. The goal of this page is to help you understand the answers you will be hearing and to help you with the question: What do we do now? Click here for Stories from Other Families What does this lead level mean? What are the symptoms of lead poisoning Who is at risk for lead poisoning? Where did this lead come from? What do you do now? Who is to blame? How do we make this right? "The persistence toxity of lead was seen to result in significant and serious impairment of academic success ... failure to graduate from high school, impairment of reading skills, and deficits in vocabulary, fine motor skills, reaction time and hand-eye coordination." New England Journal of Medicine. Table of Contents

The EPA estimates that 9,150 children are expected to have an IQ score below 70 as a result of their exposure to lead. Click here for information in Spanish - Click aqui informacion en espanol

Lead at low levels is a serious threat to the central nervous systems of infants and children. Lead toxicity in the blood has been found not only to impair early school performance, later grade school performance, but also to negatively affect cognitive functioning into young adulthood. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1990:

"The persistence toxity of lead was seen to result in signifiant and serious impairment of academic success, specifically a seven fold increase in failure to graduate from high school, lower class standing, greater absenteeism, impairment of reading skills sufficiently extensive to be labeled reading disability (indicated by scores two grades below the expected scores), and deficits in vocabulary, fine motor skills, reaction time and hand-eye coordination."

Within the human body, lead damages the nervous system, circulatory and blood forming system, reproductive system, kidneys, and gastro-intestinal tract. In adults lead poisoning can cause various symptoms, including fatigue, loss of appetite, stomach disorders, forgetfulness, headaches, insomnia, irritability, hypertension, anemia, reduced desire for sex, impotence, dizziness, and weakness in the extremities.

It is much more serious when children are exposed to lead. Since the brain has not yet completely developed, lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, lowered IQ, and anti-social behavior. Elevated levels of lead sustained over a period of time, can damage the central nervous system of children and adversely impact their development.