Lead poisoning symptoms in children and adults

If a child does get symptoms, they look a lot like everyday childhood complaints, which is why they get missed so often. According to Mayo Clinic, the common signs include developmental delay, trouble learning, irritability, not wanting to eat, losing weight, and seeming slow or tired.

A child might also get stomach pain, throw up, become constipated, or lose some hearing. When levels climb very high, lead can trigger seizures, and if a child swallows lead in rare cases it can end in coma or death.

Children under 6 take the hardest hit. The CDC warns that lead harms the brain and nervous system, slows growth, and creates problems with learning, behavior, hearing, and speech, and that harm happens at even low levels.

Researchers haven't found any level of lead in a child's blood that counts as safe. Some of this damage can be permanent and disabling, so the goal is to catch exposure early instead of waiting for symptoms.

A baby exposed before birth may arrive early, weigh less than expected, or grow more slowly.

Grown-ups usually feel nothing either. If symptoms do turn up, Mayo Clinic points to high blood pressure, aching joints and muscles, headaches, problems with memory or focus, and mood disorders.

Lead also interferes with having children. In men, it can lower sperm counts or damage the sperm. During pregnancy, it can raise blood pressure and lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, or a baby born too early, and it passes to the unborn baby.

Lead doesn't clear out of the body fast. Once lead settles into the bones, it can take decades for the amount to drop, so exposure from years back can still affect someone now.

It is, when paint went on before the ban. Lead-based paint for homes has been banned in the US since 1978, so buildings painted before then can still have it.

Peeling or cracking paint in an older building is worth taking seriously, because children under 6 are the most vulnerable and even low lead levels can harm them.

Most children exposed to lead have no obvious immediate symptoms. Only a blood test can measure the amount.

Mostly you can't tell, and that's what makes it tricky. The majority of children and adults with high amounts of lead in their blood show no symptoms at all, and any that appear mimic things like fatigue, crankiness, or a stomach bug.

By the time symptoms arrive, the lead in the blood has usually already reached a dangerous level. If you wait to see whether a child "seems fine," you may be waiting until the damage is already there.

So watch the apartment, not the child, for warning signs. Peeling paint in a pre-1978 building is reason enough to ask a doctor about testing.

This test measures the lead in a small sample of blood. Results come in micrograms per deciliter, a tiny amount of lead measured against a fixed amount of blood, and the number is what counts.

The CDC treats 3.5 micrograms per deciliter as the point where a child's number runs higher than most and needs checking. The EPA notes that CDC calls for public health action at that level or higher.

The first test is often a prick of the finger. If the result comes back high, the doctor repeats it with a sample taken from a vein in the arm.

The report to the health department is a routine step, not a judgment on you. It's part of the same process that works out where the lead is coming from.

New York State requires doctors to test every child at ages 1 and 2. From then on, a child should be checked for lead risk each year up to age 6, so if you don't know whether your child was tested, bring it up at the next appointment.