Lead Exposure
A neurotoxin still circulating in paint, cookware, batteries and spices, costing children measurable IQ.
Severity score
67.7
Critical · default weighting
Trajectory
Steady
What this is
Roughly one in three children worldwide has elevated blood lead levels. Beyond cardiovascular deaths in adults, lead causes permanent cognitive damage in children, and the aggregate lost earnings dwarf most other environmental health harms. Sources include informal battery recycling, adulterated spices and leaded ceramics.
Score breakdown
Loss of life
64Direct and attributable mortality, normalised across annual and cumulative tolls.
Lives negatively impacted
88People displaced, injured, food-insecure, exposed or otherwise materially harmed.
Financial cost
90Direct damage, lost output and health-system spend attributable to the event.
Environmental impact
38Emissions, habitat and biodiversity loss, contamination and irreversibility.
Trajectory
28Whether the situation is escalating, and how much worse it is plausibly getting.