Initiative on Combating Lead Exposure

Exposure to lead, a toxic heavy metal that can cause serious damage to the reproductive, neurological, and cardiovascular systems, is a global problem, with an estimated one in three children thought to have blood lead levels at or above 5 micrograms per deciliter, the level considered unacceptable by the World Health Organization. Children with blood lead levels at, or above, this level may score 3 to 5 points lower on intelligence tests than their unaffected peers. Exposure to lead at an early age is often associated with juvenile delinquency, violence and crime later in life. In Bangladesh alone, the lower IQ levels caused by lead poisoning are estimated to cost $16 billion annually in lost lifetime productivity, 6 percent of gross domestic product.

Since 2018, the Initiative on Combating Lead Exposure (formally called the Improving Health, Intelligence, and Economic Growth by Reducing Lead Exposure) is reducing lead exposure around the world, including in the turmeric wholesale and acid battery recycling industries. In Bangladesh, where a pigment containing lead chromate has long been added to turmeric to enhance the color of the spice, the initiative has made great strides. After a public health campaign and food safety enforcement efforts in collaboration with the country’s government, the portion of adulterated turmeric fell from 47 percent in September 2019 to 5 percent in the first quarter of 2020 and to no detectable lead in 2021. Blood lead levels in test subjects dropped by an average of 30 percent after the initiative’s interventions.

The initiative – which also operates in India, Pakistan, and Georgia – is a multidisciplinary and transnational effort. At Stanford, team members come from the Stanford School of Medicine; Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability; the Stanford Graduate School of Business; the d.school; and the International Policy Studies Program. The initiative also partners with local organizations in each country, including icddr,b in Bangladesh; Aga Khan University and Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan; and Frameworks in India.