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GeezerVison is showing ourworldindata.org — Lead Pollution

Lead poisoning is estimated to account for about 1% of the global disease burden.1

This is a large burden for a problem that gets very little attention.

On an individual level, being exposed to lead in the environment can hinder a child’s brain development: it can result in a reduction in IQ; cognitive function; and has been linked to higher levels of antisocial behavior.2

But it's a global problem that we can tackle. Many countries have already made significant progress against it.

On this page you can find all our data, visualizations and writing relating to lead pollution.

Related Topics

  • Air Pollution
  • Energy
  • Ozone Layer

Research & Writing

All our articles on Lead Pollution

A dark blue background with a lighter blue world map superimposed over it. Yellow text that says Lead Pollution by Our World in Data

January 25, 2022

Around one-in-three children globally suffer from lead poisoning. What can we do to reduce this?

Hannah Ritchie

January 11, 2022

How the world eliminated lead from gasoline

Hannah Ritchie

January 11, 2022

Many countries have achieved an impressive reduction in lead poisoning

Hannah Ritchie

January 11, 2022

Many countries have eliminated lead from paint. How do we achieve the same everywhere?

Hannah Ritchie

Key Charts on Lead Pollution

See all charts on this topic
  • A thumbnail of the "Lead concentrations in the blood of children in the United States" chartLead concentrations in the blood of children in the United States
  • A thumbnail of the "Mean lead concentrations in the blood of children" chartMean lead concentrations in the blood of children
  • A thumbnail of the "Number of children with lead levels in blood greater than 5 µg/dL" chartNumber of children with lead levels in blood greater than 5 µg/dL
  • A thumbnail of the "Death rate from lead exposure" chartDeath rate from lead exposure
  • A thumbnail of the "Disease burden from lead exposure" chartDisease burden from lead exposure
  • A thumbnail of the "Global phase-out of leaded petrol in road vehicles" chartGlobal phase-out of leaded petrol in road vehicles
  • A thumbnail of the "Mean lead concentrations in the blood of adults" chartMean lead concentrations in the blood of adults
  • A thumbnail of the "Number of premature deaths from lead exposure" chartNumber of premature deaths from lead exposure
  • A thumbnail of the "Rate of disease burden from lead exposure" chartRate of disease burden from lead exposure
  • A thumbnail of the "Share of paints with lead levels greater than 90 ppm" chartShare of paints with lead levels greater than 90 ppm
  • A thumbnail of the "Which countries have legally-binding controls on lead paint?" chartWhich countries have legally-binding controls on lead paint?
Chart 1 of 11

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Lucia Coulter and Clare Donaldson, at the Lead Exposure Elimination Project, for their insights and support of this project.

Endnotes

  1. The Institute for Health Metrics’ Global Burden of Disease study estimates that in 2019, lead exposure was responsible for just over 0.9% of global disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).

  2. Attina, T. M., & Trasande, L. (2013). Economic costs of childhood lead exposure in low-and middle-income countries. Environmental health perspectives, 121(9), 1097-1102.

    Lanphear et al. (2005) Low-Level Environmental Lead Exposure and Children’s Intellectual Function: An International Pooled Analysis. Environmental Health Perspectives.

    Ericson, B., Dowling, R., Dey, S., Caravanos, J., Mishra, N., Fisher, S., … & Fuller, R. (2018). A meta-analysis of blood lead levels in India and the attributable burden of disease. Environment International, 121, 461-470.

Cite this work

Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. When citing this topic page, please also cite the underlying data sources. This topic page can be cited as:

Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2022) - “Lead Pollution” Published online at OurWorldinData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/lead-pollution' [Online Resource]

BibTeX citation

@article{owid-lead-pollution,
    author = {Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser},
    title = {Lead Pollution},
    journal = {Our World in Data},
    year = {2022},
    note = {https://ourworldindata.org/lead-pollution}
}
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