Tackling lead pollution to unlock development potential

Lead is in materials all around us, often unseen. From factories, mines and spices to being in our water supply pipes, cosmetics and toys, lead infiltrates our daily lives, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Lead paint also remains common in many countries, disproportionately affecting the poor, who are more likely to be exposed to lead-contaminated environments.

This contamination takes its toll, with far-reaching health consequences for adults, such as cardiovascular disease, and impacts on children’s brain development, with knock-on effects on IQ, learning abilities, and future potential. The cost of this loss can be over 11 percent of lifetime income for children who will participate in the labor force.

The good news is that eliminating lead pollution is a solvable problem, but it requires partnerships, political commitment, and decisive action. We know it can be done, as the global community has successfully tackled similar challenges, such as removing lead from petrol and ozone-depleting substances like chlorofluorocarbons from refrigerants and aerosols. Now we just need to act—governments, multilaterals, private companies, and philanthropies working together.

Fortunately, momentum is building.  Recently, the United States Agency for International Development and UNICEF launched the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future, a global public-private partnership working to end childhood lead poisoning in low- and middle-income countries. The World Bank has joined this effort, alongside the World Health Organization, United Nations Environment Programme, Open Philanthropy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dangote Foundation, and many other member countries and partner organizations. 

Working together we can significantly reduce the unnecessary lives lost due to cardiovascular disease as well as the gross domestic product loss caused by reductions in IQ and potential. Solutions exist—we don’t need to live with lead in our pipes, paints, or spices. But making this a reality requires investments and better and stronger regulations, along with behavioral changes so that people switch to cleaner alternatives.

The World Bank is committed to contributing to solutions to lead pollution. We are investing in initiatives and prepared to do more. Lead pollution impacts health, water, and environmental areas, so to effectively address it we must work across all these sectors in partnership with others to ensure our actions are complementary and that we deliver results, especially when it comes to testing, prevention, and remediation.

Our first focus is testing, as testing lead concentrations can help identify exposure hotspots and testing consumer products ensures safety. For instance, in Senegal, where there is widespread lead contamination, the World Bank has helped strengthen the country’s health system with specific lead detection equipment, including the diagnostic capabilities of the Poison Control Center. 

Secondly, there’s remediation, which involves targeting sources of lead pollution like the plumbing that delivers drinking water and activities such as backyard battery recycling and industrial or mining sites. Through our Global Challenge Program on Water we are supporting the replacement and upgrading of pipes and plumbing with lead-free alternatives. This can help to address lead pollution in water systems, improve drinking water, and ensure waste materials are appropriately managed.

Third, we support prevention, which governments deliver through policymaking, adoption of standards, and, more importantly, strong implementation of these measures to prevent and minimize exposure to lead. We are developing a menu of standard actions on lead management policies that officials can use to help develop their own regulations, including, for example, policies that remove and reduce lead ingredients such as in paint, spices, or cosmetics.

Looking ahead, to the upcoming UN climate change conference COP29 and beyond, we cannot ignore how these efforts are interconnected with our other development priorities. As we pivot to a low-carbon future, lead and other metals will be needed for wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicle batteries. While we accelerate our commitment to our climate goals, we also need to ensure that this work isn’t contributing to more polluted communities and mismanaged waste. 

To this end, we are leveraging our global knowledge to provide guidance on issues ranging from battery management from recycling to managing exposure to evaluating risk. We continue to expand and adapt our occupational health and safety guidelines, whether as part of standards for industries that use metals in manufacturing or the often-overlooked workers in less regulated waste landfills, sorting, or recycling centers.

Lead pollution is an essential development challenge, one that we have the means to solve.  We will not be satisfied until we see that lead exposure levels are down, and fewer people are impacted. This will in turn allow them to learn, grow, and thrive. By tackling lead pollution, we impact development.