Lead poisoning
Symptoms related to lead poisoning:
Lead poisoning is the disease corresponding to acute or chronic lead poisoning. There is no threshold of toxicity but the symptoms are more and more serious.
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In humans, the legal threshold of danger or maximum tolerated quantity is in France of 50 μg of lead per liter of blood whereas it was 400 μg in 1976, but the scientific consensus is that its negative effects on the brain and cognition appears before this rate, regardless of the dose. Young children, the fetus and the embryo are much more sensitive than adults.
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This can range from mental retardation, growth failure, infertility to encephalopathy (coma) caused by colic, anemia, kidney damage.
Contribution of lead to the body:
Lead can be ingested by the human body by any means:
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- by oral route: by means of water when the pipes are lead or by direct ingestion of the paint;
- via the skin: when someone has an open wound and the environment is contaminated by lead (case in the event of work (dust) or in the environment (lead from cartridges for example)), lead penetrates directly in the blood;
- see respiratory: in the case of work with creation of dust, penetration into the body through the nostrils which then sends this lead into the lungs and enters the blood system;
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Once in our organism, it is transported by blood throughout the body and spreads throughout the body. Lead replaces the minerals essential for the proper functioning of our body, iron in our blood (causes anemia) or calcium in our bones (bone fragility and osteoporosis).