Cracking the code on what’s poisoning millions of children
In Devex, Jenny Lei Ravelo explains how the country of Georgia has made impressive progress toward eliminating childhood lead exposure, especially by targeting lead contamination in spices.
Excerpts:
“Lead is not entirely eradicated in Georgia, but the data shows that what the country has done to date is working. In Adjara and Imereti, two of its western regions, the prevalence of elevated blood lead levels among children has seen a decline from more than 60%-80% to 20% within five years, according to Nino Dzotsenidze, environmental health officer at UNICEF Georgia, one of the international organizations addressing lead exposure in children in the country.”
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“In 2019, the Georgian government asked Pure Earth, a global environmental health organization working to reduce lead and mercury poisoning in more than 10 low- and middle-income countries, to help investigate where the lead was coming from and how it was reaching children. It found that some of the large spice importers and wholesale sellers were adding lead chromate, an inorganic compound with a bright yellow pigment, to enhance the spices’ color and weight.”