NITI Aayog and CSIR’s joint report highlighted the growing concern of lead poisoning among children under 19 years of age in India.
India has the highest health and economic burden caused by lead poisoning.
The 2020 report found that India accounted for 275,561,163 of the total 800 million children who were poisoned by lead across the world.
This means that 50 per cent of children in India suffered lead poisoning.
It also caused 2.3 lakh premature deaths in the country.
The report found that Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh have the highest average blood lead levels (BLL) among the Indian states.
They accounted for 40% the total Indian population with high average BLL.