A partnership between Pure Earth and the Ministry of Health to strengthen the national healthcare system to better prevent, identify, and treat lead poisoning.
Strengthening Maharashtra’s Health System to Protect Children from Lead Poisoning
Pure Earth is partnering with the Ministry of Health to improve Maharashtra’s health system to better identify, monitor, treat, and reduce childhood lead exposure to help children realize their full potential.
Protecting children from exposure to lead is important to lifelong good health. There is no safe blood lead level in children. Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect learning, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement. To prevent further exposure and reduce damage to their child’s health. The most important step that parents and caregivers, healthcare providers, and public health professionals can take is to prevent lead exposure before it occurs.
Reports and Resources
- Strengthening Health Systems Parents Edu Poster
- Lead and Your Job Prevent Lead Poisoning for You and Your Family’s Health
- Childhood Lead Exposure Prevention: Assessment of Blood Lead Surveillance Capacity, Maharashtra, India ↗ Pure Earth, Vital Strategies, April 2024
- Assessment of Lead Impact on Human and India’s Response ↗ NITI Aayog and Council of Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR)
- Lead Exposure in India Fact Sheet ↗, Pure Earth India
Project Objectives
Objective One
Build capacity in Maharashtra to monitor exposure of children to lead.
Objective Two
Improve environmental health data collection in selected countries by establishing a national system of monitoring exposure of children to lead.
Objective Three
Increase knowledge about sources and pathways of exposure of children to lead.
Objective Four
Strengthen the ability of healthcare professionals to early identify, treat, and prevent lead poisoning, and educate communities and children about lead poisoning and ways to avoid/mitigate risks.
Implementing Partners
Partners include the Ministry of Health, Pure Earth, and Vital Strategies.
Project duration:
January 2023 – December 2027
Funding provided by:
A Global Initiative
Today, 1 in 3 children have enough lead in their blood to cause permanent brain damage. This project is part of a broader initiative by Pure Earth to strengthen expertise in national healthcare systems to prevent, identify, and treat lead poisoning in 5 countries. An estimated 292 million of these lead-poisoned children live in Colombia, India (Maharashtra), Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, and Peru. This 5-year project will help these 5 countries to overcome key technical and clinical hurdles to effectively identify, treat, and prevent childhood lead exposures, and to implement effective national action to monitor and reduce lead poisoning risks.
Learn more about each project in Colombia, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, and Peru.
