Environmental lead risk in the 21st century
File(s)
Published version
Supplementary information
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Lead has played a vital role in the technological development of human societies over centuries, but exposure to this toxic element following leakage into the environment poses significant risks to public health. This study assesses the contemporary environmental lead risk as global lead production and use are rapidly increasing driven largely by the rising demand for electrification. We show that the environmental lead exposure persists due to legacy contamination, ongoing coal usage, and insufficient protection of workforces during production, use, and recycling of lead-acid battery and other lead-containing products, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. We estimate that contemporary childhood lead exposure alone leads to an annual global economic loss exceeding $3.4 trillion (2021 US dollars adjusted for purchasing power parity), with pronounced disparities between high- and low- and middle-income countries. To prevent a large-scale resurgence in lead exposure, we identify four critical areas for policy intervention.
Date Issued
2025-09-30
Date Acceptance
2025-08-22
Citation
Communications Earth & Environment, 2025, 6
ISSN
2662-4435
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Communications Earth & Environment
Volume
6
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1038/s43247-025-02735-x
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 776