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.

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

Resources

Assessment of Lead Impact on Human and India’s Response ↗

NITI Aayog and Council of Scientific Industrial Research (CSIR)

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 ColombiaIndonesiaKyrgyzstan, and Peru.