Lead and Mercury Poisoning in Andean Children in

Ecuador , South America

In an ongoing project investigating lead and mercury poisoning, Leo H. Buchanan, PhD travels frequently with an international medical/research team to remote villages in the

Andes Mountains of Ecuador , South America where children and adults are exposed to lead from lead-glazing of ceramics, and to mercury from gold mining. Lead and mercury poisoning may have adverse health effects and impede neurocognitive development. The project is an international collaborative clinical, educational, and research effort conducted under the auspices of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito Medical School in Quito , Ecuador .

The aims of the project are to ascertain the prevalence of lead and mercury poisoning in certain remote areas of Ecuador, engage the inhabitants in an education and prevention program, to offer medical assistance to the community, and technical assistance to the Ecuadorian health and other government officials. 

Our project team found that the children in these Andean villages had extremely high blood lead levels (in some cases more than 10 times higher than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's action level of 10 µg/dL). Mercury levels in some gold mining areas also were found to be elevated in children, as well as in men and women. The mercury poisoning originates from the consumption of methylmercury-contaminated fish, and from the inhalation of mercury vapors from occupational gold-mercury amalgam burning. Since we initiated our Lead Education and Prevention Program, the blood lead levels of the children have decreased significantly. 

The project team members, consisting of medical doctors, clinicians and researchers from

Ecuador , the USA and Sweden , are all volunteers who are dedicated to helping the indigenous children of Educator and their families.  Dr. Buchanan recently received the William A. Hinton Award from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Harvard School of Public Health in part for his work in Ecuador.  Abstracts on the efforts of this project can be viewed at PubMed .