Effects of lead poisoning
Unless the amount of lead poisoning is extremely high, symptoms of lead poisoning are often not immediately apparent making the number of undiagnosed cases of lead poisoning high. Lead can enter your child's body when they put their hand or another object with lead dust on it their mouth, if paint chips or soil containing lead is ingested, or lead dust is breathed in. Lead poisoning symptoms include, irritability, stomachaches, poor appetite, diarrhea, colic, distractibility, and lethargy. Mood swings, irritability, sever abdominal pain, headaches, and loss of motor coordination may also result from lead exposure. Adults may be affected by lead poisoning and have kidney and neurological damage, anemia, hypertension, impotence, sterility, and miscarriages. Blood tests can determine if lead poisoning is present, but a negative blood test does not mean that damage from lead has not already occurred.

Lead can have a significant effect on many aspects of the body's system, particularly in young children and fetuses. The younger the individual is, the more affected they can become with lead poisoning. Lead is more dangerous to children because babies and young children put their hands and objects in their mouths which could contain lead dust more often than adults. Young bodies also absorb more lead than adults do, affecting the development of young children by causing speech delay, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, neurological and renal damage, stunted growth, anemia, hearing loss, and sometimes mental retardation. Lead levels can be reduced in children with certain techniques, but the damage that lead poisoning causes is not always reversible.