Divine Aleru is an accomplished biochemist and researcher with a specialized background in environmental toxicology, focusing on the impacts of heavy metals on human health. With deep-rooted expertise in microbiome signatures analysis, Divine seamlessly blends rigorous scientific training with her passion for deciphering the intricate relationships between environmental exposures and the human microbiome. Her career is distinguished by a commitment to advancing integrative health interventions, leveraging cutting-edge microbiome research to illuminate how toxic metals shape biological systems. Driven by curiosity and innovation, Divine is dedicated to translating complex environmental findings into actionable insights that improve individual and public health outcomes. 
Divine Aleru is an accomplished biochemist and researcher with a specialized background in environmental toxicology, focusing on the impacts of heavy metals on human health. With deep-rooted expertise in microbiome signatures analysis, Divine seamlessly blends rigorous scientific training with her passion for deciphering the intricate relationships between environmental exposures and the human microbiome. Her career is distinguished by a commitment to advancing integrative health interventions, leveraging cutting-edge microbiome research to illuminate how toxic metals shape biological systems. Driven by curiosity and innovation, Divine is dedicated to translating complex environmental findings into actionable insights that improve individual and public health outcomes. What was issued?
Potential health risks of lead exposure guided this brief report, which sets out clear evidence across early life and later life and calls for stronger education and control. The authors trace exposure through food, water, soil, and air and show how nutrition, regulation, and surveillance change outcomes. They document large global burdens in children, highlight persistent exposure in low- and middle-income settings, and urge coordinated prevention from pregnancy onward. They frame actions that health agencies, schools, and the food sector can apply now, and they stress that no safe level exists for neurodevelopment. I align this review to food safety programs so manufacturers and certifiers can translate the science into controls and audits.
Who is affected?
Infants, children, and pregnant women face the highest risk because they absorb more lead and store it in bone and soft tissue. Families in communities with legacy lead paint, contaminated soil, artisanal recycling, mining, and informal industries also face daily exposure. Workers can carry dust home and seed household contamination, which then enters food and surfaces. Public health officials, educators, food manufacturers, auditors, and regulators shoulder responsibility because they manage nutrition programs, set limits, verify suppliers, and test ingredients, water, and packaging. The paper shows that low- and middle-income countries carry the heaviest burden, yet pockets of risk persist in high-income countries as well.
Most important findings
The paper shows strong links between low-level exposure and reduced IQ, attention problems, school under-performance, and later adult disease. It reports that about one in three children worldwide has blood lead at or above 5 µg/dL and that exposures track with poverty, old housing, and industrial legacies. It explains that diet shapes absorption, since calcium and iron lower uptake and high-fat foods raise it. The paper also maps routes through foods grown on contaminated soil, spices and game meat, pottery glazes, dust fall on open foods, and drinking water from leaded plumbing. It reinforces the principle that no threshold protects the developing brain, so risk managers must drive exposure as low as possible. For food businesses, that means strict raw-material specifications for lead, validated supplier testing, targeted surveillance of high-risk categories such as spices, cocoa, leafy greens, cereals, and fish, and verification of process water and contact materials.
Key implications
Food manufacturers strengthen HACCP plans and environmental monitoring to include lead as a chemical hazard with clear limits, sampling plans, and corrective actions. Procurement teams add migration and content testing for packaging and pottery-like ware and reject non-compliant supplies. Site leaders test incoming water and install corrosion control where needed and document flushing and filter maintenance. Certifiers embed targeted lead checks in audits, prioritize high-risk products and regions, and require evidence of supplier testing and action logs. Health agencies pair source control with nutrition support that improves iron and calcium intake in mothers and children and they expand outreach in schools and clinics so families understand practical steps that reduce exposure. Regulators align with international best practice and move action levels downward in foods that drive dietary intake, while they scale surveillance and rapid public communication when tests detect exceedances.
Citation
Olufemi, A. C., Mji, A., & Mukhola, M. S. (2022). Potential Health Risks of Lead Exposure from Early Life through Later Life: Implications for Public Health Education. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(23), 16006. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192316006
Lead is a neurotoxic heavy metal with no safe exposure level. It contaminates food, consumer goods and drinking water, causing cognitive deficits, birth defects and cardiovascular disease. HMTC’s rigorous lead testing applies ALARA principles to protect infants and consumers and to prepare brands for tightening regulations.
