Blood lead levels or lead poisoning: blood lead part II

Blood lead levels or lead poisoning: blood lead (II)

Symptoms of lead poisoning or blood lead

The effects of lead often feel after having accumulated in the body over a period of time. The symptoms are presented according to the amount of lead that is taken into the body. In early stages may include: headache, fatigue and general body fatigue, stomach upset, insomnia, irritability, metallic taste, loss of appetite.

If lead exposure is high, can cause serious brain that can cause death or permanent sequelae and disability leave or mental retardation.

Other symptoms of blood lead levels or lead poisoning include: headache, nausea and cramps, weakness and anemia, constipation and gastrointestinal disorders, paralysis of ankles and wrists, psychomotor problems, reading disability, decreased intelligence and impaired memory, hearing problems and balance, increased blood pressure, up to antisocial behavior, aggressive or criminal.

Risk Factors

Blood lead levels or lead poisoning is particularly damaging the health of developing fetuses, infants and young children, affecting their growth and development, even when the amounts of inhalation or ingestion of lead are minimal. It is known that children can absorb up to 50% of atmospheric lead, whereas adults absorb approximately 20%.

Blood lead levels or lead poisoning is a disease usually linked to poverty, however, is not a condition unique to ethnic minorities or from low income families, where the entire population is exposed to the disease.

People living in large metropolitan areas, in old buildings or in houses built before 1978 have an increased risk of lead poisoning.

Potential sources of lead exposure include certain occupational activities and, although currently there is more control, the amounts in the air and in some places close to factories and construction sites that emerge from the toxic fumes, making the lead is a of environmental pollutants of greatest health risk to be present in the environment in the form of vapor, aerosol or dust.

The improper handling of lead as an ingredient in the manufacture of plastic items, ammunition, batteries, ceramics and toys, among others, represents another source of lead poisoning, as well as pipes or solder the metal by flowing water , cans sealed with lead and preserved until the contaminated soil that is moved through the clothes or shoes from workplace exposure to high household.