FACTS
- Lead exposure can harm young children and babies even before they are born.
- Even children who seem healthy can have high levels of lead in their bodies.
- You can get lead in your body by breathing or swallowing lead dust, or by eating soil or paint chips containing lead.
- In most cases, lead-based paint that is in good condition is not a hazard.
- Removing lead-based paint improperly can increase the danger to your family.
- Lead is even more dangerous to children than adults because:
- Babies and young children often put their hands and other objects in their mouths. These objects can have lead dust on them;
- Children´s growing bodies can absorb more lead; and
- Children´s brains and central nervous systems are more sensitive to the damaging effects of lead.
STATS
- According to the (CDC), an estimated 250,000 U.S. children have blood lead levels high enough to cause significant damage to their health. Major sources of lead exposure among U.S. children are lead.
- OSHA estimates that 804,000 workers in general industry and an additional 838,000 workers in construction are potentially exposed to lead.
- A worker dies from toxic exposure in their workplace every 30 seconds. Every 15 seconds, a worker dies from dangerous working conditions in general.
- Around 2.8 million workers globally die from unsafe or unhealthy work conditions per year.
- Diseases resulting from workplaces—like lung cancer linked to inhaling carcinogenic substances on the job—account for around 86% of all premature death.
- Cancer is by far the biggest contributor to deaths, making up roughly 70% of workplace diseases.