We are pleased to share our new report, Global Lead Program: 2024 Results and Achievements, which details the activities and accomplishments of Pure Earth’s global, collective effort to reduce lead poisoning. The report also includes an annex listing key milestones achieved by other global and national organizations. We hope this provides readers a broader sense of context and progress across the expanding community of practice focused on reducing lead exposure and poisoning worldwide.
“This report increases Pure Earth’s ability to consolidate and transparently share the Program’s key accomplishments – across all of our lead projects – in terms of surveillance, source assessments, and mitigation activities with partners, funders, our own team members, project participants, and others,” says Lori Fried, Pure Earth’s Director of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning and the lead author of the report.
2024 was a transitional year for Pure Earth. Our founder and CEO since 1999, Richard Fuller, stepped down and is now focused on research through the newly formed Innovation Lab. Longtime staff member, and most recently our Executive Director, Andrew McCartor, stepped into the role of President and CEO. Upon taking the helm, Andrew led the organization through a process to review and update our strategic plan, with input from team members across all levels, to align Pure Earth’s goals to fit the rapidly evolving landscape on the lead issue.
On the programmatic side, two large multi-year projects–Protecting Every Child’s Potential and Reducing Lead Exposure in Low- and Middle-Income Countries–closed out during 2024, therefore a major focus this year was on securing new funding. Leveraging our experience, achievements, and relationships, as well as increased global interest and commitments to addressing lead exposure, we successfully pursued major new grants. Activities funded by the new grants will ramp up during 2025.
During 2024, Pure Earth implemented activities from 27 projects across 16 countries. Through broad, impactful engagement at local, national, and global levels, Pure Earth supported governments in forming multi-sectoral task forces, integrating lead into national environmental health agendas, and building technical capacity. The program raised public awareness, produced vital action and supported policy action. Collaborative efforts led to policy shifts in Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, and Ghana as well as new declarations, MoUs, initiatives, and strengthened systems to address lead pollution.
Over 2500 blood-lead level (BLL) tests were administered in five countries, including landmark assessments in Kyrgyzstan (first-ever national BLL survey) and Georgia (results evidenced positive impact of policy and public health interventions) to understand the scope and severity of lead exposure and gauge post-intervention reductions.
We conducted 56 environmental assessments and 6 market assessments to gain information about exposure sources, generating new data on cookware and spice contamination.
We produced 48 major awareness-raising events and 23 new videos, published 9 research papers, and developed technical protocols and guidelines to standardize environmental testing.
While no site remediations were completed in 2024, the groundwork was laid for toxic site cleanups in Bangladesh, Ghana, Indonesia, and Mexico with implementation planned for 2025.
These actions, combined with strategic communications, capacity-building, and advocacy continue to position Pure Earth as a driving force in global efforts to reduce childhood lead poisoning and create safer environments for all.
The Global Lead Program has been instrumental in elevating lead exposure as a priority for action by governments, policymakers, multilaterals, and major funders. By bringing greater visibility and increased understanding of lead exposure through new data and evidence on its prevalence, severity, and sources, and through advocacy around impacts and interventions to prevent or mitigate it, the goal of tackling lead exposure has steadily gained traction among national and global actors.
It is important to view Pure Earth’s achievements as a vital piece of a larger whole. 2024 saw major commitments from the U.S. government, particularly USAID, and Administrator Samantha Power who amplified global momentum by committing $4M to lead mitigation, hiring a Lead Coordinator, and co-launching the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future with UNICEF and WHO, and recruiting dozens of founding partners in government ministries and other organizations.
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