Get The Lead Out! - Children's Health Month

According to the EPA, drinking water isn't the only way we get lead into our bodies. Lead can also be in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the dust and dirt around our homes.

Children with developing brains "are more susceptible to a host of neurological health effects brought on by lead exposure."

It can also be found in wildlife, such as endangered California condors. Why condors? Well, condors are scavenger birds, just like other vultures. They ingest animals that die naturally or are killed by humans. If an animal was shot and killed, lead will likely be found in the carcass left behind for  scavengers. That lead usually makes its way throughout our environment and into our bodies.

California Condor in treatment for lead poisoning. Photo: Nancy F. Castaldo 

The day before President Obama left office he wrote an order to phase out lead bullets by 2020. That order was overturned on the first day Dept. of Interior Secretary Zinke took office.

As a result of EPA's regulations the amount of lead in our air has decreased by 98% between 1980 and 2014! Let's keep it that way!

October is Children's Health Month. Let's keep our kids healthy. Let's maintain regulations designed to preserve the health of our bodies and environment.

The EPA Lead Page

Get The Lead Out

Find out more about California condors and how you can help in BACK FROM THE BRINK: Saving Animals from Extinction (Houghton Mifflin 2018)