Pbs Learning Media: Poisoned Water: The Health Impacts of Lead Exposure

Learn about findings from the Cincinnati Lead Study concerning the effects of lead in the bones, the brain, and elsewhere in the body-especially in children and pregnant women-in this video from NOVA: Poisoned Water. Researcher and study investigator Kim Cecil explains how lead tricks the body into thinking it's calcium, hiding in bones and in the brain, where it disrupts vital signaling between neurons. Lead can impact brain development, resulting in shrinkage or volume loss of brain tissue in areas responsible for decision making, attention, planning, and more. Lead poisoning can also be passed down from a pregnant mother exposed to lead to her fetus. [2:29]