As a parent, the natural top priority is the safety and health of your children.
But do you know who are the "killers" lurking around children? Which of these "killers" are you not paying attention to?
Silver bracelets may also make children stupid
According to media reports, at present, a certain evaluation agency has identified a batch of silver jewelry on the market and found that most of them have detected lead levels exceeding the standard. Long-term children wear these silver jewelry, light will affect intelligence, heavy will cause disease, affect the child's life.
How common is lead poisoning in life?
According to a 2020 UNICEF report, about 800 million children worldwide have excessive blood lead levels (more than 5 ug/dl), of which more than 31.23 million are from China.
As a heavy metal, lead is extremely difficult to exclude once it enters the human body, so the lead content will continue to increase in the blood, that is, blood lead poisoning.
According to the standards of the medical community, the general diagnostic criteria for lead poisoning are:
If the blood lead content is higher than 100 μg/L, it is hyperleptic, 200-249 μg/L is mild lead poisoning, 250-449 μg/L is moderate lead poisoning, and more than 450 μg/L is severe lead poisoning.
What harm does "lead" do to children?
First, it damages the brain and neurodevelopment
Lead is neurotoxic, and different blood lead levels can cause varying degrees of damage to the brains of developing children.
Lead easily enters the brain through the blood-brain barrier and selectively accumulates in the cerebral cortex and hippocampal gyrus, affecting the functions of neurons, glial cells, synapses and neurotransmitters, and disrupting the excitatory and inhibitory processes of the brain.
This leads to cognitive and neurobehavioral disorders in children, and in severe cases, it will damage children's IQ and is an irreversible damage.
Second, it affects the development of bones
Medical research has found that bones are extremely important target organ systems for lead toxicity.
Lead will not only directly damage bone tissue, but also hinder the activation of vitamin D in the body, reduce the activity of vitamin D, inhibit the absorption and metabolism of vitamin D and calcium by the body, and thus affect the bone development of children.
Third, it causes blood diseases
Excessive blood lead will have an impact on bones, and bone marrow with hematopoietic function is wrapped in bones, so its human hematopoietic function will also be affected by lead, resulting in anemia in patients.
In addition to the above 3 points, the damage of lead to children is also unmentioned digestive system and reproductive system, which will also cause children to have difficulty concentrating, hyperactivity, thinking ability and memory decline.
In addition to the nervous system, lead can also harm other organs, such as the kidneys.
Data surveys show that children with high lead intake are more stunted and have a higher risk of high blood pressure in adulthood.
What items in life may be the source of lead in a child's body?
1. Pewter
Because pewter is extremely decorative, many people will choose to buy pewter to hold food, it is true that pure tin products do not harm the body, but because of the similarity of many properties of tin and lead.
Therefore, many unscrupulous workshops will add lead to the production of pewter, so that the original non-toxic pewter will become a poison that will harm children in all aspects.
2. Lead paint
Paint is a kind of building material often used in decoration, if the paint purchased is lead paint, even if the paint brushed on the wall has been dried, the lead component will still release lead-based paint particles for a long time, resulting in children being endangered.
For some older houses, lead paint ages and falls off, making it easier for children to come into contact with and ingest. According to U.S. surveys, children living in old houses using lead paint can have blood lead levels of 200 micrograms per liter or even higher.
At the same time, some aging water pipes may also use lead-containing materials, which will gradually migrate to tap water, increasing the risk of money exposure.
3. Inferior toys
For those three-no-toys, it may be that lead-containing pigments are used. Children who encounter the oral period, due to the lack of safety awareness, so long-term nibbling on toys may also lead to ingestion.
Because young children often have the habit of sucking fingers and biting toys, toys and stationery have become an important source of lead exposure for children.
Lead exposure is not only harmful, but also irreversible, and there is no threshold for neurotoxic effects, and even low levels of lead exposure cause strong neurodevelopmental toxicity in children.
What's even more frightening is that early lead poisoning has no symptoms, and it can constantly disrupt the development of children's health.
Therefore, as a parent, in addition to teaching children to wash their hands frequently and pay attention to personal hygiene, they also need to clean utensils and household cleaning, so that children can stay away from the harm of second-hand smoke and third-hand smoke.
If you find that your child has the above-mentioned lead source contact incidents, you may wish to take your child to a regular hospital for lead exceeding the standard.
bibliography:
[1] Lin Guowei,Wang Jiyao,Ge Junbo. Practical Internal Medicine[M]. 15th ed. Beijing: People's Medical Publishing House, 2017.
[2] LIU Guijie. Discussion and analysis of lead poisoning factors in children in mainland China and its impact on health in later stages[J].Electronic Journal of Cardiovascular Diseases of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine,2020,8(27):10+76.