What is Lead?
Lead (Pb) is a metal found naturally in the environment as well as in many manufactured products. It is a heavy metal that is highly toxic to humans and animals. Lead is found in small amounts in the earth’s crust and is bluish-gray or gray-white metal resistant to corrosion. It has no taste or smell and can be found in all parts of our environment.
Much of the lead that gets into the environment is from human activities including mining, burning fossil fuels and manufacturing. Sources of lead resulting in concentrations in the air include industrial sources and weathering of soils followed by fugitive dust emissions.
Health effects from exposure to lead include brain and kidney damage and learning disabilities. Lead is the only substance which is currently listed as both a criteria air pollutant and a hazardous air pollutant. Lead pollution is also an issue in water resources, including contamination of subsistence foods and drinking water.
Raw Lead Ore
Lead is an abundant mineral in today's world because of its low cost. Compounds of lead are used in a wide variety of products. Some of these products include paint, pipes, solders, gasoline, batteries, cosmetics, batteries, ammunition, ceramics and devices to shield X-rays.
In 1976 health concerns began to emerge and the federal court gave the EPA authority to regulate leaded gasoline. By June 1979, nearly half of all US gasoline was unleaded. During this time, lead from paints, caulking, pipe solder, and ceramics was also dramatically reduced.
In June 2008 the EPA proposed lowering the National Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) of lead levels further. http://www.epa.gov/oar/lead/actions.html.
Where does Lead Come From?
Lead in some areas of Alaska may come from lead-based paint, soils, dust past use of leaded gasoline and mining. Many homes built before 1978 have lead-based paint. It can be found inside and outside of homes. Lead is also found in car batteries and industrial (wet-cell) batteries.
Processed Lead Ore
Soil around a home can contain lead. Soil can pick up lead from exterior paint, or from other sources such as past use of leaded gas in cars and mining operations. Children playing in yards can ingest or inhale lead dust and adults can inhale lead dust from driving vehicles or ATVs and doing daily activities that stir up dust. Even household dust can pick up lead from various sources.
You can also be exposed to lead from your job. If you work with lead, you can transport it home on your hands or clothes. Ways to decrease exposure by your family is to rinse off or shower and change clothes before coming home. Launder your work clothes separately from the rest of your family's clothes.
Lead may also be in food and liquids stored in lead-glazed pottery or porcelain. Food can become contaminated because lead can leach into it from these containers. You may also be exposed to lead during activities such as making pottery, staining glass, or refinishing furniture.
Lead exposure and consumption can also occur with subsistence activities, like hunting small animals and birds with lead shot, which can then contaminate families eating these animals. Health officials say lead levels in mothers and newborns on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta are higher than in areas where nontoxic shot is more widely used.
http://dwb.adn.com/front/story/5107755p-5034663c.html.
Naturally occurring lead is found in small amounts in water and soil and small quantities of lead are found in lakes, rivers and groundwater that supply drinking water. Lead in water may also be from the solder used on older pipes. Work on older homes may disturb lead-based paints and produce lead dust. In addition, industrial runoff and settling of airborne lead particles are significant sources for lead in bodies of water. This can be prevalent in areas with lead mining.
The major sources of lead emissions are lead smelters or other industries that release lead into the air. One industrial lead source in the Western Brooks Range is the Red Dog mine, located in the Northwest Arctic Borough.
The Red Dog mine is in an area with high levels of naturally occurring metals in the earth. The mine primarily produces lead and zinc ore concentrate with other metals in much smaller quantities. The mine consists of the open pit mine site, port facility, and a 52-mile haul road which inter-connects them. At the mine, ore is processed to concentrate the lead and zinc which is trucked to the port facility and loaded on barges in the Chukchi Sea for transportation to smelters around the world.
The port is about 15 miles from the village of Kivalina and the mine is located about 60 miles from Kivalina and about 40 miles from Noatak. The transport of these mined minerals may increase chances of lead contamination in the area from lead dust falling onto the roadway, water, plants and animals.
Stationary sources of lead are waste incinerators, coal burning utilities, and lead-acid battery manufacturers.
How can lead affect my family and community?
Lead in very tiny amounts may cause wide ranging of health effects, from behavioral problems, learning disabilities, speech difficulties, to seizures and death.People can be exposed to lead in a number of ways. Human intake of lead can be attributed to consumption of food and drinking water that contain lead, as well as breathing airborne lead particles.
Children are particularly susceptible to lead because they absorb it more readily and do not eliminate lead from their blood as quickly as adults. Mothers who are exposed to large amounts of lead during pregnancy can give birth to smaller and slower developing babies.
Lead adversely affects numerous body systems and causes forms of health impairment and disease that arise after periods of exposure as short as days (acute exposure) or as long as several years (chronic exposure). The frequency and severity of medical symptoms increases with the concentration of lead in the blood.
Common symptoms of acute lead poisoning are loss of appetite, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, constipation, difficulty in sleeping, fatigue, moodiness, headache, joint or muscle aches, anemia, brain and kidney damage, and decreased sexual drive. Acute health poisoning from uncontrolled occupational exposures has resulted in fatalities.
Long term (chronic) exposure to lead can take a long time to excrete (remove) from the body tissues, joints and bones. Long term (chronic) overexposure may result in increased blood pressure, decreased fertility, cataracts, nerve disorders, muscle and joint pain, memory or concentration problems. Other long term problems can include severe damage to the blood-forming system along with problems to the nervous, urinary, and reproductive systems. EPA classifies lead as a “probable human carcinogen.”
While extreme lead exposure can cause a variety of neurological disorders such as lack of muscular coordination, convulsions and coma, much lower lead levels have been associated with measurable changes in children’s mental development and behavior. These include hyperactivity; deficits in fine motor function, hand-eye coordination, and reaction time; and lowered performance on intelligence tests.
Airborne lead enters the body when you breathe or swallow lead dust or fumes. The State of Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services recently released a report on work-related lead poisoning over the last 12 years (1995-2006). It identified that 94 percent of the workers (289 men) with blood-lead levels above 25 ug/dL were employed in the mining industry. A follow-up story by Elizabeth Bluemink of the Anchorage Daily News reports that most of the adult blood-lead laboratory results came from the Red Dog lead-zinc mine near Kotzebue, Alaska. Although there is no Mine Safety and Health Administration standard to protect miners from lead poisoning, a lead-poisoning prevention program with routine blood-lead testing has been implemented by Teck Cominco Alaska. [NOTE: This program is designed for acute lead-poisoning based on lead-blood levels. It does not measure long-term (chronic) accumulation of lead in tissues (organs, joints and bone); which can have severe health implications.]
http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/2008/03/03/lead-poisoned-workers-in-alaska-miners-beware/.
What can I to do to decrease Lead Exposure in my community and at home?
Lead can harm anyone who swallow or breathes it. Lead is most likely to enter the body as fumes or dust, when it is easily inhaled, or as contamination on hands or face, where it can be swallowed. Do not allow children to chew or suck on painted surfaces such as woodwork, porches, old toys, cribs and other old furniture.Good hand washing is one way to decrease your risk of lead contamination. Poisoning by mouth may occur based on your own personal hygiene. Lead can be swallowed if food, drinks or tobacco are contaminated. Lead is usually not absorbed through the skin.
Another way to decrease lead exposure is to avoid paint and dust. If paint in your home is peeling, flaking or chipped you can use a wet mop with dish washing soap to clean floors and woodwork. Again, wash your hands before eating or fixing food. Contact your local EPA office or Tribal Liaison for proper disposal instructions of contaminated clean-up materials.
House painted with lead paint
If you have lead paint that needs to be removed, remember that removing lead paint causes dust which can harm people. Wear an appropriate cover over your mouth and nose and stay out of your home while lead paint is being removed. Be sure your home is cleaned after the paint is removed. Children should be careful when playing in the dirt around the house and if practical play away from the soil directly around the house.
Try not to heat or cook food in the can it comes in and avoid store food in a can which has been opened. Cans with lead solder may come from countries other than the United States. They are not common but have been found in shipments from foreign countries.
Lead can be found in pottery and dishes from other countries. Do not use dishes you think may have lead. Lead is absorbed more quickly on an empty stomach.
Airborne lead can also get into your water. It is important to keep drinking water as safe as possible. Everyone in the community can help to be responsible for following procedures to reduce the risk of lead poisoning.
Education and lead awareness programs for children and parents can help to protect children, since they are more at risk. The emphasis should be on primary prevention efforts (i.e., elimination of lead hazards) before children are poisoned.