Pure Earth has published a comprehensive Rapid Market Screening study on September 12, 2023.  It has identified alarming lead contamination in consumer products in Bangladesh, sampling 197 products across 3 districts: Barishal, Rajshahi, and Khulna. About 24% of the samples exceeded the reference lead levels; maximum amount of lead is found in the products that we use in our everyday life such as metallic cookware, ceramic cookware, and toys.

The Rapid Market Screening (RMS) program is a project of Pure Earth with support from GiveWell. Between 2021 and 2023, researchers analyzed lead concentrations in thousands of products and foods from markets across 25 countries, including Bangladesh. Read more:

• The Rapid Market Study Final Bangladesh infographic Report with Recommendations
• The RMS full study report
• Preliminary infographic report: Bangladesh First-phase RMS study including the formative research

Today, the Lancet Planetary Health journal published the World Bank’s analysis titled ‘Global health burden and cost of lead exposure in children and adults: a health impact and economic modeling analysis.’ The report estimates that the level of harm due to lead exposure is far greater than previous estimations.

According to the study, lead pollution has serious implications for children below five years of age, causing a loss of about 20 million (20,596,306) IQ points,  and about 140,000 (138,054) cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths among adults aged 25 years or older due to lead exposure exceeded the previous estimation with a four times higher mortality rate. The combined cost of these health effects was US$28,633 million which is a loss of 6 to 9% of the country’s GDP in 2019.

Read more:

• The Lancet Planetary Health report
• Press Release – Circulated by Lead-safe Bangladesh Coalition
• Infographics – IQ loss, CVD deaths, and Economic cost due to lead exposure

Watch the film: One in 36 Million: Story of Childhood lead poisoning in Bangladesh

“One in 36 Million: Story of childhood lead poisoning in Bangladesh”, a film produced by Pure Earth Bangladesh won the Grand Prix award in the “Better Health and Well-being” category of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s fourth ‘Health for All’ film festival. The online and in-person award ceremony was held on 6 June at the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. 

The film was directed by Arifur Rahman, Filmmaker and Producer, Goopy Bagha Productions Limited, and Mitali Das, Documentary Film Director and Communications Lead for Pure Earth in Bangladesh.

About 36 million children are poisoned by lead in Bangladesh, ‘One in 36 million’ is the story of one child, Saim among those 36 million.

Read details in the Press Note: Bangladeshi film on childhood lead poisoning won Grand Prix in the World Health Organization’s film festival

Read in the blog: Pure Earth Film Awarded Grand Prix Prize at WHO’s Health for All Film Festival

• Lead pollution is increasing the risk of intellectual disabilities among children and causing four times higher deaths in Bangladesh; costing up to 9% of the country’s GDP. ‘Lead-safe Bangladesh Coalition’ calls for urgent multi-sectoral actions (September 2023)
• Bangladeshi film on childhood lead poisoning won Grand Prix in the World Health Organization’s film festival (June 2023)
• WHO announces winners of the 4th Health for All Film Festival (June 2023)
• Hundreds of people took oath in an awareness session in Khulna to prevent lead pollution (April 2023)
• Pollution responsible for 9 million deaths in 2019, with little progress in four years: Lancet Report (May 2022)
• Hundreds of community people at Mirzapur joined together in solidarity of putting an end to lead pollution (March 2022)
• Lead Pollution, The Silent Killer: Needs Urgent Attention and Multi-Sectoral Actions, Bangladesh (July 2021)
• New Research Confirms Findings Of Childhood Lead Poisoning Crisis In Low- And Middle-Income Countries  (March 2021)
• Pure Earth, Clarios Foundation and UNICEF launch Protecting Every Child’s Potential: A Future Free from Lead Exposure (October 2020)
• A third of the world’s children poisoned by lead, new groundbreaking analysis says, UNICEF and Pure Earth (July 2020)
• Pure Earth, Clarios Foundation and UNICEF announce global partnership to protect children from lead exposure (July 2020)

Read more about our work in Bangladesh:

• Pledging to Build a Lead-Free Environment
• Pure Earth Bangladesh: Teaching 16 Million Students About Lead Pollution Through the National Curriculum
• Pure Earth Film Awarded Grand Prix Prize At WHO’s Health for All Film Festival
• Toxic Lead Cleanup Brings Hope to Residents in Mirzapur and Beyond
• Bangladesh: Workshop Brings Consensus; Launches Unparalleled Unified Response To Lead Poisoning CrisisBangladesh
• Bangladesh: Communities Learn To Fight Rice Husk Pollution
• Mobilizing tea workers to fight pollution
• A Mother’s Story: Hope in Kathgora, Bangladesh
• Children’s Lead Levels Fall Following Cleanup
• Looking for Lead? No Problem!