Lead Poisoning in South African Children: The Hazard is at Horne.

Lead is a toxic heavy metal that has been used extensively in modern society, causing widespread environmental contamination even in isolated parts of the world. Irrefutable evidence associates lead at different exposure levels with a wide spectrum of health and social effects, including mild intellectual impairment, hyperactivity, shortened concentration span, poor school performance, violent/aggressive behavior, and hearing loss. Lead has an impact on virtually all organ systems, including the heart, brain, liver, kidneys, and circulatory system, resulting in coma and death in severe cases.

International environmental law and global public health.

The environment continues to be a source of ill-health for many people, particularly in developing countries. International environmental law offers a viable strategy for enhancing public health through the promotion of increased awareness of the linkages between health and environment, mobilization of technical and financial resources, strengthening of research and monitoring, enforcement of health-related standards, and promotion of global cooperation. An enhanced capacity to utilize international environmental law could lead to significant worldwide gains in public health.