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Lead Exposure Right Now, By Country
Every country has a different blood lead level today. Pick one. Drag the year slider to see where it came from. Watch the crowd change.
Each dot = 258,000 people · Adult geometric mean BLL estimates · Historical data modeled from national surveys, IHME GBD, and leaded-fuel phase-out dates
BLL scale:
< 2 µg/dL
2-4
4-7
7-10
10+
Lead doesn't cause one disease.
It causes all of them.
Every dot below is a person carrying a lead-linked condition right now. We have written the full research on each one, the mechanisms, the studies, the data. Pick a condition card, drag the timeline, then read the deep-dive below.
🇺🇸
United States
avg BLL 1.2 µg/dL
--/1,000
carry a condition
--
lead-attributed
--
--% prevalence
all causes
--
--% diagnosed
clinical diagnosis
2023
1970
2023
197019801990200020102023
1975 · PRE-DIAGNOSIS ERA
LEAD
Blood lead comparison, 0 to 20 µg/dL scale
Select a country above
Click any country chip to see context and historical data.
Data & methods
Current levels (2023 column): national surveys where available, NHANES (USA), CHMS (Canada), GES (Germany), KNHANES (South Korea), icddr,b (Bangladesh). Other countries use IHME Global Burden of Disease 2019 estimates and Pure Earth country assessments.
Historical estimates (1970-2010): modeled from known leaded-gasoline phase-out dates, published blood-lead trend studies, and IHME GBD modeled series. Ericson et al. (2021) Lancet Planetary Health systematic review provided regional anchors. Confidence intervals are wide for pre-1990 estimates in countries without continuous national surveys.
Key references: Lanphear et al. (2005, 2018); Annest et al. (1983); Mahaffey et al. (1982); Liu et al. (2018) China meta-analysis; Oluwole et al. (2019) Nigeria; Siddique et al. (2020) Bangladesh turmeric; Pure Earth "World's Worst Pollution Problems" reports 2015-2020.
The research behind each dot
The largest easily controllable sources can be seen with low-cost fluorescence spectroscopy.
Lead-glazed dishware. Pre-1992 painted ceramics. Positive result in 30 seconds. No lab. No waiting.
© 2025 DetectLead / FluoroSpec. All rights reserved. Visualization design, code, and original written content are protected by copyright. Data sourced from NHANES, IHME GBD, Pure Earth, and national health surveys.