Can silver bracelets cause lead poisoning and make children stupid?

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Expert of this article: Zhang Zheng, deputy chief physician, Guangzhou Haizhu District Center for Disease Control and Prevention

This article was reviewed by Liu Ming, Chief Physician, Guangdong Provincial Institute of Occupational Disease Prevention and Treatment

For newborn babies, many elders will give them a pair of silver bracelets, hoping that the children can grow up healthy and safe. Some people also say that silver jewelry can test poison, and if there is toxin in the child's body, the silver jewelry will turn black.

It sounds like silver bracelets have a significant effect. Recently, the topic #Silver bracelets that make children stupid# has focused people's attention on the fact that "silver bracelets can cause lead poisoning." Is this true? Today we will reveal the truth for you.

What are the dangers of lead poisoning?

Lead exists in the atmosphere, water, soil, non-ferrous metal mining and smelting, lead-acid batteries, leather and its products, decoration materials, toys, cosmetics... Lead and its compounds are widely present in the production and living environment, mainly entering the human body through the respiratory tract in the form of dust, smoke or vapor, and relatively less absorbed through the digestive tract and skin. Lead in blood and breast milk can also enter the body of offspring through the placenta or breastfeeding. The biological half-life of lead in the human body is 5-10 years, and it is mainly excreted through feces and urine, and a small amount is excreted through sweat glands, salivary glands, and mammary glands.

Whether it is occupational exposure or daily exposure, whether it is adults or children, excessive intake will cause the lead content in the blood to exceed the normal range and cause lead poisoning.

Lead poisoning can cause damage to multiple systems and tissues and organs including the nervous system, hematopoietic system, digestive system, reproductive system, cardiovascular system, liver, and kidneys, causing symptoms such as abdominal pain, anemia, fatigue, depression, high blood pressure, joint pain, and reproductive disorders.

Children's digestive tract absorption rate of lead is as high as 50%, which is 5-10 times that of adults. The kidney's lead excretion capacity is significantly lower than that of adults. They are also prone to taking lead into the body through bad habits such as chewing objects and sucking fingers. Therefore, children are more susceptible to lead poisoning than adults, especially children aged 0-6 years old.

For children, the harm of lead toxicity is more serious than that of adults and has no threshold. Lead poisoning can cause irreversible damage to children's nervous system, directly affecting their physical growth and intellectual development. Children with lead poisoning show symptoms such as irritability, slow reaction, decreased intelligence, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, black stools, insomnia, palpitations, pale complexion, anemia, etc. Severe cases may even lead to acute brain damage and death.

Is all silver jewelry toxic?

Lead has good toughness and ductility. Some manufacturers will add it during the jewelry production process to increase the flexibility and frequency of molding of the jewelry, making the jewelry more beautiful while reducing production costs.

The mandatory national standards issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the National Standards Administration have set limits on harmful elements in jewelry. The lead content in jewelry must be less than 1‰, so not all silver jewelry is toxic, and safe and qualified silver jewelry will not cause human poisoning.

Can silver needles be used to test poison?

The silver needle test for poison that the ancients talked about was actually intended to test arsenic, a common and highly toxic substance in ancient times, namely arsenic trioxide. The reason why arsenic could be detected by silver jewelry in ancient times was because the craftsmanship at that time was crude, and the arsenic produced was mixed with sulfur or sulfide. Sulfur or sulfide can react chemically with silver to form a layer of black silver sulfide on the surface of the silver needle. According to current production and purification technology, silver jewelry cannot detect high-purity arsenic at all, so there is no way to talk about silver jewelry testing for poison.

How to prevent lead poisoning?

The country has passed relevant laws, regulations and standards to limit the use of lead and reduce environmental lead pollution; enterprises strictly follow the requirements of laws, regulations and standards to control lead pollution in project design and construction, equipment process technology, environmental monitoring and investigation, employee protection and supervision, etc., to reduce occupational lead poisoning.

For ordinary people, how should they protect themselves and the children at home?

Learn the fine points

Correctly and deeply understand the hazards of lead, actively learn relevant knowledge, improve your own and your children's protection awareness and ability, cultivate good hygiene habits, and consciously maintain home hygiene, personal hygiene and health monitoring.

Stay away

Live as far away from industrial pollution areas or main roads with heavy traffic as possible;

Indoor coal-burning households should open windows for ventilation and separate the coal-burning area from other living areas;

Avoid taking children to play on roadsides with heavy traffic or in industrially polluted areas;

Protect children from passive smoking.

Be more detailed

If you live in an industrially polluted area or near a main road with heavy traffic, you should frequently use a damp cloth to clean the dust in the house and in places where children often touch. Cover food and tableware to prevent dust or place them in a cabinet. Wash children's toys and other items regularly.

When decorating a child's room, try to choose solid wood furniture without paint, and move in after it has been fully ventilated and tested by a professional organization;

Buy precious metal jewelry produced by regular manufacturers and tested by testing departments;

Choose and purchase safe and qualified clothing, tableware, toys and other daily necessities and school supplies;

Prevent children from chewing on lead-containing ornaments, toys, pencils, crayons and other school supplies;

Take children to the hospital regularly for blood lead testing, and promptly treat lead poisoning if it is found;

Workers who may be exposed to lead (in smelters, welding plants, battery factories, cable factories, paint factories, auto repair shops, etc.) should take personal protection measures according to the degree of lead exposure in their positions, avoid wearing work clothes home or washing them with family members' clothes, and change personal clothes or clean exposed skin before coming into contact with children.

Eat well

Pay attention to dietary balance, avoid eating vegetables, fruits, poultry, popcorn, preserved eggs and other foods with high lead content produced in lead-contaminated areas, and eat more foods with chelated ingredients such as milk, sea buckthorn, kiwi, kelp, onion, etc.

Lead poisoning is very harmful to humans

When buying jewelry such as silver bracelets

To be produced by regular manufacturers,

Passed the inspection by the testing department

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