Exposure to Lead from Used Lead-Acid Battery Recycling in Low- and Moderate-Income Countries

摘要

Exposure to lead impacts the health of millions of people in low- and moderate-income countries (LMICs), with children often most impacted. One of the largest greatest sources of lead exposure is recycling of used lead-acid batteries (ULABs) from cars, trucks and motorbikes. Because lead is Due to lead's intrinsic valuable, almost all ULABs are recycled. In low- and moderate-income countries (LMICs), this is often done in small-scale shops in the informal economy. Large numbers of people are exposed to lead from these shops because there are thousands of them, they are commonly located in residential areas, and they they most often have poor controls for smelting smoke, dust, worker hygiene and waste disposal. Pure Earth has evaluated over 500 active and former ULAB sites in 33 LMIC countries around the world, with a particular focus on Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Indonesia and , Kenya and the Philippines. Pure Earth has also developed estimates for the number of ULAB shops based on the number of batteries motor vehicle in use and the average battery life in LMICs. Based on this work, the total number of active or closed ULAB shops in LMICs is estimated to be in excess of 102,5000, and there are thousands more now-closed ULAB sites that continue to present lead exposure risks. Over 6nearly 2 million. Over 7,000,000 people are estimated to be at risk due to lead exposure from these shops. Many of these the affected people are children, and blood lead levels for people living in children around such shops is are often >40 ug/dLI, compared to a WHO CDC actionable level of 5 ug/dl. This paper will review the data known about ULAB shops and people whose health is impacted by them. Examples of ULAB recycling sites in Asia, Africa and Latin America will be shown, along with a brief review and examples of how such sites can be efficiently evaluated and remediated.