UNICEF Trains Ashanti Healthcare Workers to Combat Lead Poisoning Amid International Awareness Week

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has rolled out a programme aimed at supporting the Ashanti Regional Health Directorate to train healthcare workers on the prevention of lead poisoning.

This is also part of activities being undertaken by Ghana as the country joins the rest of the world to mark International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week (ILPPW).

The 2024 ILPPW, which is being observed between October 20 and October 26, is on the theme, “Bright Futures Begin Lead Free.”

A week is set aside in October every year by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to highlight the harmful effects of lead poisoning, especially among children and pregnant women who are the most vulnerable.

The aim is to draw attention to the health impacts of lead exposure, highlight efforts by countries and partners to prevent childhood exposure, and accelerate efforts to phase out the use of lead in paint.

Globally, one in three children have elevated blood lead levels with over 50 per cent of children in lower income countries affected, according to UNICEF.

The situation in Ghana is not any different with about 1.7 million children estimated to have blood lead levels above five micrograms per deciliter – a concern for health authorities.

It is against this background that UNICEF Ghana has supported the Ashanti Regional Directorate to train clinicians, health information officers, midwives, community health nurses, and environmental officers in educating the public on the health effects of heavy metals such as lead and mercury in the human body.

Lead is a known multi-organ system toxin that has effects on the cardiovascular, neurological, urinary, gastrointestinal, reproductive, and hemopoietic systems at extremely low levels of exposure.

Training the targeted healthcare workers was therefore part of a broader strategy to reduce the exposure of children to lead through public education, Dr. Fred Adomako Boateng, the Regional Director of Health Services told the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi.

The goal was to equip participants who engage people daily in their line of duty with the right information for education purposes, he added.