Symptoms of Lead Poisoning

Symptoms of lead poisoning are not immediately apparent making the number of undiagnosed cases of lead poisoning high. Lead can enter your body when you put your hand or another object with lead dust on it your mouth, if paint chips or soil containing lead is ingested, or lead dust is breathed in. Symptoms of lead poisoning include, irritability, stomachaches, poor appetite, diarrhea, colic, distractibility, and lethargy. Blood tests can determine if lead poisoning is present. Mood swings, irritability, sever abdominal pain, headaches, and loss of motor coordination are also symptoms of lead poisoning. Adults may be affected by symptoms of lead poisoning and have kidney and neurological damage, anemia, hypertension, impotence, sterility, and miscarriages.

Symptoms of lead poisoning can have a significant effect on many aspects of the body's system, particularly in young children and fetuses. The younger the individual is, the more affected they can become with symptoms of lead poisoning. Lead is more dangerous to children because babies and young children put their hands and other objects in their mouths more often than adults, which could contain lead dust. Young bodies also absorb more lead than adults do, affecting the development of young children by causing speech delay, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, neurological and renal damage, stunted growth, anemia, hearing loss, and sometimes mental retardation. Lead levels can be reduced in children with certain techniques, but the damage that lead poisoning causes is not always reversible.

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