By: Rebecca Ampah
Country Director of Pure Earth, an organization focused on addressing and solving lead and mercury pollution across the globe, Esmond Wisdom Quansah has disclosed that the high index of children’s death is attributed to prolonged exposure to lead-concentrated substances.
In an interview on GTV’s Breakfast Show, Mr. Quansah stated that about ninety percent of over Eight hundred million children died globally as a result of lead poisoning according to research.
According to him, children get exposed to lead through metals in toys, sand and clay close to industrial areas and traditional eye-liners used mostly by people from the northern part of Ghana under the eyes of newly born babies.
He also mentioned that one of the main causes of children dying as a result of lead is through their parents during pregnancy as some lead to miscarriage.
“If a mother had exposure to lead for a long time, and this mother conceives, the research shows that the mother will transfer 100 percent of the lead that is deposited in her to the foetus,” he said.
He further mentioned that children die more than adults when exposed to lead because their bodies absorb lead more as compared to that of adults.
He therefore called on the government to collaborate with key stakeholders to find a solution to this health issue.
“Lead poisoning is real and we need to take all necessary precautions to ensure that our children are safe,” he added.
