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Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffInitially, lead poisoning can be hard to detect — even people who seem healthy can have high blood levels of lead. Signs and symptoms usually don't appear until dangerous amounts have accumulated.
Although lead can affect almost every part of your body, it usually targets the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells (hemoglobin) first. In time, it attacks your nervous system.
Symptoms in children
The signs and symptoms of lead poisoning in children may include:
- Irritability
- Loss of appetite
- Weight loss
- Sluggishness and fatigue
- Abdominal pain
- Vomiting
- Constipation
- Unusual paleness from anemia
- Learning difficulties
Symptoms in newborns
Babies in the womb who are exposed to lead through their mothers may have:
- Learning difficulties
- Slowed growth
In some cases, these problems may persist beyond childhood.
Symptoms in adults
Although children are primarily at risk, lead poisoning is also dangerous for adults. Even exposure to amounts of lead too low to cause symptoms in the short term may increase the risk of high blood pressure and mental decline in the future. Symptoms in adults may include:
- Pain, numbness or tingling of the extremities
- Muscular weakness
- Headache
- Abdominal pain
- Memory loss
- Mood disorders
- Reduced sperm count, abnormal sperm
- Miscarriage or premature birth in pregnant women
- Fatigue
- CDC's Third National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals: Spotlight on Lead. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/pdf/factsheet_lead.pdf. Accessed Jan. 17, 2009.
- ToxFAQs for lead. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts13.html#bookmark05. Accessed Jan. 17, 2008.
- Goldman RH, et al. Adult lead poisoning. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 19, 2008.
- HUD sets new requirements to prevent childhood lead poisoning in housing assisted or being sold by the federal government. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. http://nhl.gov/offices/lead/library/enforcement/1012fs.pdf. Accessed Jan. 23, 2009.
- General lead information: Questions and answers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/faq/about.htm. Accessed Jan. 23, 2009.
- Protect your family from lead in your home. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/426.pdf. Accessed Jan. 23, 2009.
