Aluminium cookware made from scrap metal may pose lead exposure hazard and significantly reduce IQ and affect school performance among children, a new study has warned.
The highest levels were found in cookware from Vietnam including one pot that released 2,800 times more lead than California's Maximum Allowable Dose Level (MADL) of 0.5 micrograms per day.
Researchers at Ashland University and Occupational Knowledge International in the US tested 42 samples of aluminium cookware made in 10 developing countries and more than one-third pose a lead exposure hazard. The cookware also released significant levels of aluminium, arsenic and cadmium.
This cookware is common throughout Africa and Asia and is made from recycled scrap metal including auto and computer parts, cans and other industrial debris.
There are no regulatory standards specific to lead in cookware but the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have determined that there is no safe level of exposure to lead.
In fact, a scientific advisory board to the CDC recommended this week to lower the blood lead action level for children to 3.5 microgrammes per decilitre, underlining the hazard of even low level lead exposures.
"Lead exposure from inexpensive aluminium cookware has the potential to be of much greater public health significance than lead paint or other well-known harmful sources that are common around the world," said Perry Gottesfeld from Occupational Knowledge International.
Recently conducted surveys of lead exposure in Africa and Asia have suggested that blood lead levels have remained stubbornly elevated despite the ban on lead in gasoline in most of the world.
"The presence of lead in food cooked in these pots may be one contributing factor to the ongoing lead poisoning epidemic," Gottesfeld said.
"Lead and cadmium exposures from regular use of these pots will significantly reduce IQ and school performance among children, and contribute to millions of deaths due to cardiovascular disease," said Jeffrey Weidenhamer, professor at Ashland University.
The investigation simulated cooking by boiling acidic solutions in the cookware for two hours and measuring the lead extracted in solution.
The researchers also found levels of aluminium on average were six times greater than WHO dietary guidelines and significant concentrations of cadmium leached from 31 per cent of the cookware tested.
Cadmium is neurotoxic in children, causes kidney damage, is linked to cardiovascular deaths and is carcinogenic.
Lead exposure in children is linked to brain damage, mental retardation, lower educational performance, and a range of other health effects. Globally lead accounts for more than 853,000 deaths per year.
The study appears in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
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