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Alexandra Costanzo
Andrew Niedbala
Mr. Scot Acre
AP Calculus
2 February 2015
Lead in the Body
Lead is used around the world for creating and building various gadgets and gizmos. It is most commonly used in batteries, but is also used in making ammunition, pipes, and roofing materials (McCarthy). What many people failed to realize, especially people in the past, is that lead is toxic. Lead poisoning can cause trouble concentrating, nausea, loss of appetite, memory loss, depression, and other serious conditions such as high blood pressure and heart disease
(“LEAD-Information for Workers”). Once this was discovered, lead was banned from being used in paint, pipes, and other household products (“Homesafe: Lead Poisoning Facts”). Since it was discovered relatively recently that the lead products were so harmful, many older houses and buildings still in use today are a major health risk. This is especially the case in Detroit,
Michigan, where many public school students were found to have lead in their systems.
Since 1980 the amount of lead in consumer products has decreased due to federal and state standards. Although this does help, there are still many ways the lead can get into the body.
Lead is still found in older houses, as mentioned above, and also found in soil, household dust, drinking water, and pottery (“Lead”). Any one of these sources can still place concentrations of

Costanzo - Niedbala 2 the toxic metal into the body. Once it has entered the body, lead travels between different organs such as the bones, tissue, kidney, brain, and liver (Hernandez).
Adults that are diagnosed with lead poisoning can have brain and kidney damage.
Middle-aged men have also been known to have very high blood pressure. Young children and infants are at the highest risk for major issues. Exposure to an infant of a certain amount can reduce the birth weight of the baby and decrease the growth rate as a young child. In the most serious cases young children and infants died from the exposure. Mental disabilities are seen in both children and adults when put into an environment with lead (McCarthy). As said previously, lead is toxic. No amount is safe, and all environments without lead are safer for everyone
(“Lead”).
Figure 1. Lead Levels in the Body
Lead levels are measured in micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. As seen in Figure
1, amounts between about 5 and 9 mg/dL are what experts believe is the stage where poisoning begins. Anything above 10 mg/dL is considered the level of concern by the U.S. Centers for

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Disease Control and Prevention. Although both children and adults can get lead poisoning, it is more common for kids to get it due to the fact they may eat lead paint chips as babies, put toys in their mouth that could have lead paint or dust, or play in the dirt outside where lead is naturally found (Lam). The lead will then be absorbed into the blood line which will carry it through the entire body.
Once the lead reaches the brain, different sections are attacked and different functions are affected. One of the parts of the brain damaged can cause the child to drop IQ points and have more difficulty with learning and remembering different things. This is why students with higher levels of lead are more likely to drop out of school. They become discouraged because the curriculum is so much more difficult than it would be to a child with a lower level of lead.
Experts, such as Wayne State University nursing professor Lisa Chiodo, are trying to come up with a new curriculum for students with lead poisoning so they may be less discouraged
(Lam).This will help immensely for the students who have a daily struggle in a normal classroom but still want to learn and grow as a student.
Figure 2. Flowchart of Lead Entering and Exiting the Body

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Figure 2 above shows how lead enters the body by way of food, air, or water and travels to the blood stream. From there the lead can be absorbed by the soft tissue and the bones. It then circulates between these three and other organs until it is able to exit the body. Lead does not leave the body easily and only exits through the urinary system, hair, fingernails, and sweat. This can take a very long time and it takes the longest for it to exit the bones (Hernandez).
Figure 3. Lead Body Levels after 800 Days
In 1973 a study was done to follow the process of the lead going through the body of a healthy man living in Los Angeles, California. In Figure 3 the amount of lead in the body measured mg/dL is seen for 800 days that a person is exposed. The data from the graph comes from the study and shows the observations taken. Blood and tissue lead levels both increase at first and then plateau, but the levels in bones, although slower to start, continue to increase in this time period. Lead stays in the bones longer than the blood and tissue. It can take about a month

Costanzo - Niedbala 5 for lead to leave the blood, several months to leave the soft tissue, and decades to leave the bones
(“Get the Lead Out”).
Figure 4. Lead Body Levels after 400 days, 400 Lead Free Days
Figure 4 shows the same study as Figure 3, but in this instance the graph shows what would have happened had the subject been placed in a lead free environment after 400 days. In the first study, the lead levels in the blood and tissue stayed at the same level for almost the entire time. After being placed in a lead free environment, the levels of lead in the blood and tissue rapidly decreased. The lead levels in the bones was also altered. Instead of increasing permanently, the lead levels plateaued just under 2500 micrograms, and then began to slowly decrease. This shows that it is possible for lead to leave parts of the body within 800 days of it entering the body. If not detected early enough, however, lead levels in the body may not decrease at all, like in Figure 3. If the lead penetrates the bones, it can increase rapidly also. If action is taken fast enough, lead levels in the bones will eventually decrease, even though it takes much longer than other parts of the body.

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Figure 5. Lead Body Levels with Medication and a Lead Free Environment After 400 Days
Besides leaving the lead environment altogether, there is another way of releasing the toxic metal from the body. An anti-lead medication increases the rate at which the lead leaves the body. Figure 5 shows what would happen if a person was exposed to lead for 400 days then placed in a lead-free environment and administered the drug for 400 days. The amount of lead in the body is the same for the first 400 days as it was in the other studies, but in the second set of
400 days there is a difference. The tissue and blood level drop quickly and plateau near zero micrograms of lead while the bones just starts to decrease. Adding the anti-lead drug to the body can help to decrease the amount of lead in the body much faster than it would if the patient is just placed in a lead-free environment.

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Figure 6. Lead Levels in Detroit Public Schools Students, 1992-2008 (Lam)
Lead poisoning is a serious issue. The amount of damage it can do to a body can have physical and mental effects for an entire lifetime. Figure 6 shows the lead levels in Detroit school children. Although these numbers and levels are from a 1992-2008 time frame and may have changed in recent years, the levels are still much too high for comfort. When looking for homes available in the Detroit area, the farther from the dark red you are, the farther you are from the highest levels of lead, and the safer the area you will be in. Not only are there homes that are affected by the lead, but schools as well. Parents should refer to maps like this to make sure they are sending their children to the safest area they can. Maps like these also need to be studied so they can change in the future. The amount of red on the map is alarmingly high, and is not safe for anyone living there. By studying the map, Detroit leaders can determine which areas need the most help most urgently, so that the amount of lead in the environment can decrease from where it is today, and so that all areas of Detroit can be free of lead.

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The Cureton family living in Detroit has been dealing with lead poisoning for a very long time. Mother, Jeanine, has been living with lead poisoning for more than 20 years and is now dealing with it in her own children. She was not able to finish high school because of her learning disability. Her own mother helping her through it did help a lot and she received injections of Chelation, which is a chemical that draws lead from the body. Now raising her own children, Jeanine and her husband, Reginald, are struggling to keep their children lead free. They were taking as many precautions as they could by mopping and cleaning the house as much as possible. Even though they did all of this their two sons, Reggie and Maurice, attained the poisoning. This was due to the fact that the lead dust, although not on the windows, floors, or walls, was still in the carpeting. Since all of this happened the family has now moved and the children are no longer in Detroit Public Schools. They are enrolled in the Detroit Merit Academy where they receive extra help and learn new skills to help them on this difficult journey. The family is full of hope and they are seeing improvements. (Lam)
The Curetons are not the only family affected by lead poisoning. Hundreds of families across Detroit, and across the nation deal with the damaging effects of lead poisoning every day.
By actively trying to keep the environment lead free, and by acting speedily if lead does intoxicate a person, the effects that lead has can be limited, taking the limit off of what one can do in life. In our community, levels of lead are not as high as the ones in Detroit. This does not mean we are completely safe though. There are still other ways of getting lead poisoning besides living in a house with lead paint or pipes. Learning more about the community you are in and the history of it can help to save you a lot of trouble. For example, if you were looking for a house near Detroit, looking at a map such as the one in Figure 6 could help to limit the areas where you

Costanzo - Niedbala 9 could stay that are safe. Being informed like this could save you and your children from going through the dangerous transit of lead poisoning.
Students and researchers are trying to make the difference in today’s world. They are constantly coming up with new ways to challenge the lead poisoning and decrease it’s power.
The more help they get and the wider the range of people know about it, the greater the effects can be for it to come to an end.

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Works Cited
"Get the Lead Out." Idph.state.il.us
. Illinois Department of Public Health, 1 Dec. 2011. Web. 01
Feb. 2015. < http://www.idph.state.il.us/about/epi/getpbout.htm
>.
Hernandez, M. "Lead in the Body-A Calculus Investigation." Lead in the Body – A Calculus
Investigation (2007): n. pag. Courses.ncssm.edu
. Adapted From Duke University’S
Connected Curriculum Project, 2007. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.
< http://courses.ncssm.edu/math/NCSSM%20Student%20Materials/Investigations%20Tri mester%201%20Cal%20II/Lead%20Student%20Handout.pdf
>.
"HomeSafe: Lead Poisoning Facts." HomeSafe: Lead Poisoning Facts . HomeSafe Inc., n.d.
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>.
Lam, Tina, and Kristi Tanner-White. "High Lead Levels Hurt Learning for DPS Kids."
Freep.com
. Detroit Free Press, 16 May 2010. Web. 01 Feb. 2015.
< http://archive.freep.com/article/20100516/NEWS01/5160413/High-lead-levels-hurtlearning-DPS-kids >.
Lam, Tina, Eric Millikin, Kofi Myler, Kristi Tanner-White, Martha Thierry, Brian Todd.
"Interactive Map Shows Lead Levels in Detroit Neighborhoods over Time." Detroit Free
Press . Detroit Free Press, 16 May 2010. Web. 01 Feb. 2015.
< http://archive.freep.com/article/20100516/NEWS01/100514031/ >.
"Lead." Niehs.nih.gov
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< http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/lead/ >.

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"Lead Poisoning and the City of Detroit." Drawingdetroit.wordpress.com
. Ed. Courtney Flynn.
Drawing Detroit, 23 July 2012. Web. 01 Feb. 2015.
< https://drawingdetroit.wordpress.com/author/drawingdetroit/page/18/ >.
"LEAD-Information for Workers." Cdc.gov
. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30
Sept. 2013. Web. 01 Feb. 2015. < http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/lead/health.html
>.
McCarthy, Gina, ed. Lead: Fact Sheet . Canberra: AMIC and BRS, n.d. Epa.gov
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<http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/wastemin/minimize/factshts/lead.pdf>.