Lead Exposure in Low and Middle-Income Countries: Perspectives and Lessons on Patterns, Injustices, Economics, and Politics

Katarzyna Kordas, Julia Ravenscroft, Ying Cao and Elena V. McLean

Lead exposure is a legacy issue that continues to affect vulnerable population groups globally, but particularly in low and middle-income countries (LMICS). We take a multidisciplinary approach to examine the patterns of lead exposure in these countries, discuss the underlying injustices and socio-political causes, and the economic costs that are associated with exposure. We conclude with some lessons we drew from our discussion of lead across the disciplines and advocate for a number of approaches to solving this ongoing issue. These include (i) biomonitoring that could be integrated into existing health surveys or public health programs targeting young children; (ii) greater civic engagement to push for solutions; and, (iii) environmental control policies that represent a continuum of local, context-specific to broad, national-level, and even global approaches.