Lead Toxicity - Element Of Mystery

Half the children in India are poisoned by lead. Why has the country failed to prevent it despite knowing the sources and treatment?

- Taran Deol

FOR MONTHS before his second birthday in 2007, Vijay Singh (name changed) had frequent bouts of uncontrolled vomiting three-four times a day. He had turned pale and weak. For almost a year, Vijay's parents, residents of Barabanki town in Uttar Pradesh, took him to several medical centres. Finally, a doctor at the district hospital in Faizabad, 100 km away from Barabanki, realised Vijay was severely anaemic and began blood transfusions. Even so, his haemoglobin levels remained dangerously low.

His parents then went to a super-speciality hospital in Lucknow, where doctors conducted several tests like bone marrow analysis and genetic profiling. The mystery prevailed until Vijay’s father, Manjit, revealed his source of income—a battery recycling operation at their house.

Manjit would recycle old lead-acid batteries in the basement and sell the products at the ground floor, where the family lived. This means lead could have entered Vijay's body through several ways —the metal can be ingested through mouth, inhaled through the respiratory system or absorbed by the skin, as per the World Health Organization (WHO). After learning about Manjit's occupation, doctors tested Vijay’s blood lead level, which was 186 microgrammes per decilitre (µg/dL), much more than the tolerable limit of 5 µg/dL set by WHO. This was a clear case of lead poisoning. “I read about battery recycling and metal toxicity but I never thought it would happen in my home,” says Manjit. He has since shut the operation.