Increasing environmental burden of lead in India and its impact on children health and their intellectual development

In spite of major policy decision taken to introduce unleaded gasoline by the Government of India way back in 2000 as a result of The George Foundation studies, environmental contamination of lead still a major threat. Most of the lead contamination in the environment is from the already identified unorganized sector of lead based industry and age old practices using lead as an active ingredient in several house hold products leading to elevated Blood Lead Levels (BLL) amongst children below 12 years of age. Strategic plans and policies are developed to address these issues for the prevention of child hood lead poisoning in India with multistakeholders as partners in developing standards.Constant effort of the National Referral Centre for Lead Projects in India ( NRCLPI) the much needed public awareness is taken up across the country through the Lead Educator (LeadER) project in which over 15,000 school teachers and large number of NGO's are trained. LeadERs are created in industrial and health sector and facilities to monitor environmental lead and  BLL are established in 35 centers across the country with basic laboratory facilities to monitor environmental and BLL.NRCLPI in partnership with the Government of India has established Indian Society for Lead Awareness and Research (www.inslar.org). With five National Institutes whrere InSLAR has taken up projects related to environmental lead leached in to air water and soil is under study. Plumbing material, cosmetics, traditional medicines and paints are covered under this current project. Our motto is lead safe society.