Click to play videoBangalore: After road maps and world maps, now come lead maps and Bangalore is on its way to getting one.
Such a map may help someone like 40-year-old Kumar.
Kumar came to Bangalore's St John's Hospital to test his blood lead levels. He suffers from forgetfulness and disorientation because of lead poisoning at the lead acid battery shop where he works.
"He only sleeps all the time. It’s very difficult. He's the only earning member of the family," bemoaned Kumar’s wife Jansi Rani.
Lead content is high in paints, batteries, fuel and dust from lead-mining industries. Once it enters the human body system, it can cause hypertension and reduced IQ. That is why when Dr Venkatesh and his team of volunteers decided to grapple with the problem, they thought of mapping its occurrence zones first.
“Lead is non-biodegradable. Whatever is thrown out, it goes into the environment and it’s still there, whether that lead is getting into our system or our women, our children,” said Dr Thuppil Venkatesh, who is the Advisor with National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning.
“We decided to take up a five-year project involving students and teachers and the community to generate, collate data, look at blood lead levels,” he explained.
Put simply, the team is preparing a data map on lead content in every part of Bangalore. Besides helping the government identify problem areas, it can also help warn residents about the health risks involved in living in these areas.
According to the World Health Organization, 120 million people world-wide are affected by lead poisoning, 99 per cent of which hail from developing countries like ours.
While lead poisoning is not incurable, if left unattended it can be lethal.
Prevention is better than cure any day, and the lead map is just aiming to do that.
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