Finding the Lead Before It Finds the Children

Lead poisoning is invisible, permanent and overwhelmingly a problem of poor countries, where used lead-acid batteries are broken open and smelted in yards next to houses, and where turmeric, cookware and paint are still adulterated with it. Pure Earth's method is unglamorous and specific: identify the actual site, measure the soil and the blood, remediate the ground, and move the smelting away from where children sleep. It has identified nearly 5,000 toxic sites across more than 50 countries, run close to 340 projects in 51 of them, and tested over 6,000 consumer products in 25 countries to find which ones are the route in. After one clean-up in Kathgora, Bangladesh, children's blood lead levels fell 42%. The organisation has since been funded through the Audacious Project to reach 500 million children by 2033.