OCTOBER 17, 2023: US$350m—just $50m a year until 2030—in initial funding could help eliminate childhood lead poisoning in low- and middle-income countries by 2040, according to a statement published today by think tank, the Center for Global Development (CGD).
The statement, signed by 26 experts (in their individual capacities) from leading organisations including UNICEF, Lead Exposure Elimination Project, Pure Earth, as well as prominent academics, calls for major global action to end the slow-moving crisis of childhood lead poisoning by 2040. While this is a long-term project, the statement also points to short-term, cost-effective measures that countries can take right now to eliminate lead in spices, paint, and other consumable goods, as well as to reduce lead exposure from battery recycling.
An estimated 815 million children—one in three worldwide—have exposure levels that can be considered lead poisoning. Lead is estimated to drive a fifth of the global learning gap between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries according to recent CGD research; and lifelong lead exposure is estimated to cause between 1.6 and 5.5 million deaths each year from cardiovascular disease.
Rachel Silverman Bonnifield, senior fellow and lead author of the statement, said: “Widespread lead exposure has a huge impact—on global health, on children’s ability to learn, and even on economic development—yet so few policymakers are even aware that this is a problem. With high-level political attention and just $50 million per year until 2030 in international financing, we could get the world on track to end childhood lead poisoning for good. For perspective, that adds up to $350 million total—roughly the cost of a single wide-body airplane. It’s time for this issue to be prioritized.”
While national governments in low- and middle-income countries must take the lead on domestic regulation and enforcement, the statement calls on the international community—development agencies, multilateral development banks, and international organizations—to play a crucial catalytic role. This includes supporting lower-income countries with measurement and surveillance efforts to ascertain the scale of the problem; mobilizing advocacy and high-level attention; helping build capacity for regulation and enforcement; and providing proof of concept for interventions to reduce lead exposure.
The authors estimate that just over US$11 million in annual philanthropic funding currently goes towards lead exposure prevention and mitigation in low- and middle-income countries—an extraordinarily small sum relative to the magnitude of the problem and what is required to solve it.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS:
For more information on CGD’s working group, Understanding and Mitigating the Global Burden of Lead Poisoning, please see here.
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