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Is There an Adverse Effect on the Intellectual Development of Children Exposed to Low Levels of Lead

Lead has been recognised as a neurotoxicant for hundreds of years. Initial awareness of its potential to damage the nervous system occurred as far back as the Roman Empire when lead was used extensively, for example in plumbing, and as a paint pigment, cosmetic agent and a sweetener and preservative for wines and fruits juices. Intoxication resulted in a variety of systemic and neurological effects, including encephalopathy and the well-documented motor peripheral neuropathy ’wrist drop’. During the last 200 years, the more severe manifestations of lead intoxication have tended to occur amongst industrial workers engaged in such diverse operations as lead mining and smelting, battery making, recycling processes, lead shot manufacture, paint-making, glass-making and motor car repair. As a result a major part of research into the effects of lead exposure has been directed towards the occupational field in an attempt to establish safer working conditions. More recently, however, attention has focused on the possible effects on the general population, whose exposure derives largely from living in a modern industrial society where lead is used extensively in manufacturing processes, and hence is transmitted via numerous routes into the wider environ-